Reflection
by CuteYami
Summary: Continuation from Tsumihoroboshi-hen. "Everyone has been claimed by the fateful June and I stand, the lone survivor. Clouds pass over the sun, abandoning the village of Hinamizawa; my home - reclaimed by demons". 2 of 5 chapters rewritten. Revival, October 2012.
1. Shadow

**Higurashi no Naku Koro ni - Reflection [Jukko-hen]**

_Continuation from Tsumihoroboshi-hen. "Everyone has been claimed by the fateful June and I stand the lone survivor. Clouds pass over the sun, abandoning the village of Hinamizawa; my home - reclaimed by demons"._

* * *

That feeling she had experienced there, her head resting against his chest, his arms around her, she mimicked the action. She would never experience it again, this warmth that exceeded all bright days in the remote village. Ryuuguu Rena had led Maebara Keiichi up there - onto the roof of the Hinamizawa Branch School - using that bomb as bait. He had been clutching Houjou Satoshi's bat, she herself held the hatchet she had discovered in the mounds of trash at the dump. Together they fought, with the truth at stake, the fate of the village and everyone in it, more specifically the children.

She had spoken of the invasion that was to come, the aliens that would descend from space and create clones of everyone - insisting that she had been copied by the foreign creatures. They would come and erase everyone in Hinamizawa. The scrapbooks that Miyo Takano had given her egged her closer to insanity, uncovering the horrific secrets that the young woman had stumbled upon before being brutally murdered and her corpse dumped in a barrel, set alight until her skin was charred and left little behind. They had been after her, everyone. She had killed two people and Mion had confessed to her family. No, that was how she believed it had played - the reality had been that she had been sinking further into the inescapable spiral of self-destruction.

Inescapable… until _he_ showed up.

He promised he would believe her if she won the final charge, promising to listen to her words of the impending doom of Hinamizawa's humans. That was the final trigger - his acceptance of her story if she could come out victorious of that water gun fight they had resumed with real weapons. She wished for the wager to match his - that the loser would become a servant to the winner, to greet them and wish them a good night's sleep. To make them feel warm and happy in between each link of the chain that was the Watanagashi's deaths that came and haunted everyone through the end of June. He gave her his word that he would believe her if she won, even if she were to become the next victim and descend into complete meltdown, tearing the flesh of her neck open with her own nails, just like the cuts that already opened, kept from exposure by roughly placed bandages that clung to her skin. Holding the blood inside, keeping her from seeing the maggots that crawled around inside of her. Even if she were to kill herself to fulfil the requirements of the chain.

And with that, they dashed towards each other, bathed in the light of the full moon that hovered almost level with the roof.

The bat soared.

That one moment she knelt triumph over him, she couldn't lower that hatchet. She was glad she hadn't - she would have defeated herself in the ultimate game of fate. He had reached out to her beyond all limitations; no-one had reached for her in such a way. They were together, alone, on that roof. He spoke of friends and how they would be able to confide in each other. He kept his arms around her as she sobbed into his chest.

She wasn't alone, she had never been alone.

She finally felt… _loved_.

* * *

**「ひぐらしのなく頃に」**

**熟考編**

**Chapter 1 - Shadow**

Those were days of old, those precious moments had been months before, eight months in the past to be precise. That same Ryuuguu Rena gazed at the ceiling of the chamber she sat in, alone, having been admitted to a hospital following experience of Level 5 phase of the Hinamizawa Syndrome. Taken there to calm down, to recover from the deadly symptoms of the regional disease. She would never forget the look on Keiichi's face as Detective Ooishi led her away gently the morning following the incident; at least she had experienced time with her friends following the incident, an opportunity to plead for their forgiveness. She had endangered their lives in more ways than one, she had tried to crack open the head of their club's leader, the woman she felt closest to - Sonozaki Mion - yet they had welcomed her back with open arms. Without a shred of remorseless, like they understood just the mental suffering she had gone through. The hell she had descended to and climbed back up from. She glanced over her shoulder at him, the expression he gave had been one of sympathy - the Rena he had known before that day had not been the girl he had seen over the previous weeks, the Rena that introduced him to Hinamizawa and became his first friend. A smile broke through, one of silent wishing luck to her; she returned the expression faintly, the strongest smile she could give in her haunted state - her slim body racked with guilt and fatigue, both physical and mental. That had been the last time she had seen him, there had been no word from him or her friends following that occasion. Nothing from Keiichi, nothing from Rika, nothing from Mion, nothing from Satoko. _Nothing…_

From the opposite side of the door, a tapping sounded - someone had come to check up on her. The beat brought her back to the room around her - to the present world, a time outside of her vivid memories rattled with guilt and stained in blood. Her eyes diverted to the door, her face expressionless, it was common to be empty of any feelings on the surface with the post-Level 5 Rena; she would no longer giggle or squeal at something she deemed cute - the attraction remained inside of her, simply… empty - not like the previous Rena. She was reverting back to the younger girl she had been just before her return to Hinamizawa, that depressed and emotionally puzzled girl - _Ryuuguu Reina_.

"Come in" she bade tonelessly.

The silence lingering incessantly within the four walls became invaded by the creaking of the door opening gradually, the large grey-haired man familiar to Rena stood on the other side - Detective Ooishi. He had been the only one to visit her since being admitted to the facility - sometimes for questions, sometimes simply to check that she was stable, only for a time when he'd require to question her again. She sighed, her eyes a dull azure; the once-dominant black pupils that gave her the same innocent look she had shared with her friends having faded, setting them on the elderly officer. The door creaked behind him, a gentle click pronouncing its closing. The sound went unnoticed while Ooishi proceeded towards the girl seated to his left and pulled out the chair opposite, seating himself before her and presenting a consoling smile.

"How have you been feeling, Ryuuguu-san?" he inquired cheerfully.

"I'm fine" Rena exhaled faintly, dropping her eyes from the sight of the man, she had come to despise the small talk he would generally begin with, something gentle to bring her round to talking. "Are you here to question me more about the fight with Keiichi-kun or that day? It's been so long… you _must_ know everything by now".

"No, no. Not at all" Ooishi answered, waving his hands defensively against the accusation, palms flat as he waved as though rubbing against the glass of an invisible window between them. That was how visiting Rena could feel - like a barrier remained there, a barrier preventing him from coming close to the frail girl - to understand her - someone convinced that anyone near her would come to harm. "I've simply come to see how you are doing".

"Like I said, I'm alright here" Rena murmured in response, keeping her eyes from the officer whose gaze remained upon her. "This place took me in after… everything that happened. All the people I hurt are safe while I'm far away here".

The detective released a disheartened sigh - Rena had incessantly blamed herself for descending through the destructive spiral that the Hinamizawa Syndrome, the thing she had claimed was the _Curse of Oyashiro-sama_. Silence fell over the chamber while the guilt gripped the broken girl's heart, the elderly man unable to respond until she would listen to his claim that would leap to her defence.

"Has there been anything from Keiichi-kun and the others?"

Ooishi lifted his head; Rena had broken the silence before he could divert the topic, making continuing much easier for him. Her azure eyes remained from him, unable to look up at him and expect forgiveness… no matter how many times he had insisted that everyone had forgiven her. She wished to hear the apologies from them, yet no-one came. It was the final fragment of her guilt - no-one had come so no-one cared, even her father had little to say, trying to keep going in her absence, apparently depressed without his young princess by his side. Perchance he was still devastated over the loss of his girlfriend, unknowing that it had been Rena who robbed her of her life.

The girl leaned back in her seat, back touching the fabric that acted as a comfortable divider between the wooden base and the seated individual. Ooishi coughed lightly, Rena usually brought up her friends and family, more specifically Keiichi after what had been an astonishing act to rescue his classmates. The sheer length he had gone to protect his friends _and_ the self-destructing girl had never departed from her dreams or her heart. But such a subject was sensitive on raw wounds; the officer would normally attempt to divert the topic once again from it and to something that didn't fill the girl with bitter loneliness.

The cough was like a cue, Rena expected the new question or statement from Ooishi - someone who Mion had spoken of as a corrupted man, someone who couldn't be trusted, yet someone that Rena had confided in when she found the mysterious notebook in her hands following her meeting with Takano in the library of Okinomiya. Why would he always do his best to evade the subject of those she held so dear to her heart? Those whose smiles kept her going while separated from them. Such acts aggravated her, all she wished was words about or from her friends, her family, yet the man was hiding their lives after the morning of their departure from Hinamizawa like they were unimportant, hindering Rena's recovery.

Like he was holding something terrible back.

Had they forgotten her?

The loose fists on her knees tightened, gripping at the skirt that she wore - the school uniform that she would wear to attend class alongside her friends. Her eyes hardened into an impassive glare as she gazed at the floor, unable to rise and direct her anger towards the man who had brought such emotions to life.

"Forgive me, Ryuuguu-san. I believe my mind travelled elsewhere" he replied, a hint of hollow repent. "But there has been little. While they care, they have their own lives that they must resume. I cannot say anything more, not yet".

His eyes descended to the small coffee table between the seats, the flat surface shimmering as the sunlight reflected off of it, void of beverages or nourishment.

"Ooishi-san?" Rena uttered, concern shining through in her voice, eyes softening when she moved them to the officer, seeing their downcast nature.

"I don't mean to change this subject deliberately, but I have a favour I'd like to request of you" the elderly officer proceeded.

"A request? What kind of request could I fulfil?" Rena inquired.

"I heard that the staff here believes you're ready to be discharged from this place, ready to live outside these walls with regular check-ups to ensure you're truly capable of living the way you once did. In Hinamizawa" Ooishi uttered softly. "Though it may take longer for a decision to be reached, but I'd like it if you were to remain here for another month".

"'Another month'?" Rena inquired, eyebrows lifting to give the perplexed look that she had lost some months ago, shrugging off the lost, stern look she had worn for many days since the incident. Expressions of loneliness, of a lost and frustrated child. "But… why would you need me to stay here a little longer if they reach that kind of verdict?"

"As you know, I will retire from my position as an officer in Okinomiya shortly" Ooishi recalled. "I would like to escort you back to Hinamizawa. At that time, I can explain about the uneasiness around the subject of your friends there. I know you've been worried about my reactions to your want to know what your friends are thinking and saying without you around in their lives".

"I will do so then" Rena muttered, casting her eyes towards the carpeted floor. "I'll see Keiichi-kun and the others again; we can resume life as it once was. I just hope they don't hate me after all that I have done to them, all the pain I caused".

Sorrow at the thought of losing her friends lingered in her heart, tearing her apart from within when guilt overwhelmed her. Her fringe fell over her eyes as she tilted her head forward, hindering any view of her eyes Ooishi had. Tears trickled down her cheeks from the shadows cast over her azure eyes, gathering at the base of her chin and slipping down her throat.

"Maybe that's why they haven't come".

"Ryuuguu-san, that's not true" Ooishi protested, leaning forward and over the table that separated them. "The boy… Maebara Keiichi, I believe. He requested that I tell you something, something to calm you if you ever felt abandoned by your friends - something that I felt didn't need reliance upon before now. He told me 'if Rena ever feels alone or dejected, we'll be there for her… we'll be inside her heart, and she'll be in ours. We won't give up on her. We'll wait for the day she returns to Hinamizawa as the Rena we know and love. We can never hate her from what she has endured and what actions it caused for her to commit. We won't hate her for who she is and what suffering alone made her become. We know she'll be Rena once again'".

The pure words from Keiichi's mouth had burned themselves into his mind since that day so long ago, carving each one into him like a message into the bark of a tree, to remain for a child to return later in life and see it rise as the tree grew. Rena's head rose, revealing the streams of tears that flowed from her eyes, her brow furrowed as she put everything she had into keeping her sorrow silent, not to sob uncontrollably.

"Keiichi-kun… he said that?" she asked, a rising tone giving away her astonishment. _Love?_ He had uttered the world "love". She wished she could express the affection she held for him mutually. That was if he truly loved her on a separate level of those they called friends. Her fists tightened again above the bones of her knees; they would meet again, she would tell him…

Ooishi gave a nod, smiling gently when he could recognize a glimmer of hope in Rena's eyes, her face no longer screwed up in despair, but rather stunned by the message that had been passed on. Perchance she was recapturing the light that had been absent from her life for the past eight months.

"Ooishi-san… thank you" she muttered, allowing another tear to slip from her eyes. The girl that had been alive previously, almost like a former version of the girl, was gradually reawakening, she would live once again. The clash between Reina and Rena would slowly turn in favour of the latter, the girl reborn upon her return to Hinamizawa in the summer of 1982 - a year before Keiichi arrived, the year when Houjou Satoshi vanished.

"It's nothing. A simple message that Maebara-san wanted passed on" the officer mumbled humbly. "Before now, there was little chance of you deteriorating into a complete state once you claimed to be strong enough to talk of your friends. However, with such little time remaining, I thought now was the only opportunity I would have to tell you what Maebara-san told me before you return to Hinamizawa. It'd mean more to you if you heard it here, before you stand just outside the borders of the village".

"I guess… I just needed to hear those words" Rena whispered, hands together on her lap catching her eyes. "Those words telling me that Keiichi-kun and everyone are still waiting for me, still believing in me. I don't want their beliefs to go to waste, I want to show them that I have returned to the Rena that they were waiting for, show them that I'm sorry and I want to resume life as we lived".

Ooishi smiled at the girl, relieved that her fighting spirit was slowly coming together, fragments building upon one another to form what was one a young woman. Determination flashed across Rena's eyes, the eyes still searching the past to grasp the same kind of flame she possessed during the club activities - occasions to prove her worth to the others with the bonus of something cute waiting for her at the end of the day. She wouldn't fail in telling Keiichi how she truly felt, the emotions that she had kept bottled for almost a year, even if he and Mion had grown closer in her absence, even if they stood hand in hand as a result of Mion's affection for the brunette male.

"They've been my inspiration… I wanted to make them proud. And I haven't let them down, I want to prove that".

The detective continued to beam at the words of hope that departed Rena's mouth, his eyes falling to the hands on her lap that had withdrawn from the knees beside each other and keeping a strong grip on the other. The same fists that had thrown those that threatened her chances of obtaining something cute aside with the sheer power for her love of the object or person. Her voice also grew from the toneless muttering, hinting the lighter innocent tone of voice that she would usually speak in.

"Ryuuguu-san, I will do whatever I can to help you restore your life when you depart from this place" he added, bringing the brief silence to an end.

Rena's eyes rose to meet the face of the man, someone that Mion had spoken of ill after his involvement on the other side of the Dam War that had threatened Hinamizawa's existence, a time in which she had left the village and moved into a new life - one much more suited to her mother than herself, a life that she had discarded in favour of Hinamizawa and her father, her friends and those she was familiar with.

"Th- thank you" she squeaked, feeling taken aback by the offer from such a man - someone that often intruded on Hinamizawa's soil for the sake of investigating incidents, set mainly on uncovering the string of deaths that accompanied the Watanagashi. "It means a lot to me that you want to help so much".

"It's the least I can do" Ooishi replied, gradually closing his eyes before proceeding on. "It's my duty to protect citizens of the area in which I've been station, Hinamizawa is included in that. And you are a resident of Hinamizawa; I'd prefer to take you back where you'll feel safer on the journey back. But for now, I will depart".

"You haven't been here long, you're leaving so suddenly?" Rena asked, watching him with puzzled eyes.

"I'll depart so that I can have a cigarette outside" Ooishi chuckled lightly. "It wouldn't be fair for you if I promised is much for the future then started smoking in front of you where you could inhale some of my second-hand smoke".

Rena smiled at the joke the officer had uttered, grateful that he had taken even smaller details into consideration for the sake of the bigger picture - promising a bright and content future and then evading the small possibility of erasing such a prospect. Her eyes narrowed slightly, not in despair, but rather in enjoyment of the man's company for once - even though her friends and family had yet to visit and see how far she had progressed, a familiar face felt enough when it brought a warm and cheery aura with it.

"Don't let me keep you if that's the case" she insisted. "You should have one now before your urge grows".

"Alright then" the detective replied, standing from his seat, towering over Rena while his shadow fell on the wall behind him. "I'll be back shortly".

Rena kept her eyes on the man as he turned his back on her and approached the threshold, opening the door discretely. He paused before passing through completely, turning his head and setting his eyes on her brightly. Immediately, regret washed through him when he observed the bright smile on Rena's face, not as bright as those she had shown in the past during those carefree days amongst her friends; riding on their bikes to Okinomiya or the club activities they played, the results usually seen by several villagers, but one much more optimistic than she had given since leaving Hinamizawa. He gave her a hollow smile in return before completing his passage through the doorway, bringing the wooden barrier to a close behind him.

A click declared the door had been shut completely, allowing Ooishi to set his eyes upwards, giving a sigh. He was lying through his teeth and those lies were what was keeping Rena going, it sickened him to think that he had messed with the girl's mind for so long, using the excuse that it was for her own good. Usually, he'd have no trouble acting professionally, but Rena's state was far too severe at the time and telling her would only reverse the progress she had made, there was always the possibility that she would turn on him, spitting on his words and screaming that he was a liar. That was something he had come to learn about her, when a lie was given to her in the place of the truth, she would protest fiercely, she despised lies as though she were an agent of Oyashiro-sama, doing whatever she could to avoid losing those that the Shrine God could select as worthy sacrifices during the next Watanagashi.

Keiichi had uttered the words that Ooishi had passed on to Rena, but they were about the only shred of truth there was. Rising her hopes and prolonging her dreams felt like the right act to commit for now, to let her learn and see for herself rather than inform her in a place so far from where she felt safe, where she belonged. He felt like he was slowly ripping himself apart inside, she had turned to him when she felt there was nowhere to go while clutching Takano's scrapbook, the notes in the journal entitled "File No. 34". She had confided in him what she feared, no matter how ridiculous and fled when she feared that he, the last person she felt she could trust, could turn on her because of her delusions that Sonozaki Mion had confessed to the killings that the girl had committed. He felt sympathy for her, feeling as though he had developed a bond with the girl. But all he was doing was watching aspiration grow inside of her, waiting to be shattered when reality smacked her, and that was what hurt the most.

Behind his back, was an innocent and fragile girl that lived on lies and had done so for eight months. He closed his eyes remorsefully, wishing that he hadn't strayed down the path of deceit, that he hadn't let his sympathy for the girl intervene with his professionalism. Why was telling her the truth so difficult? Because of their past attempt of trying to uncover the conspiracies in the remote village?

As an officer, he was meant to face difficult times, and yet… something about this one was different. He felt a connection to her, the survivor of the deadly disease that torn so many lives apart in the past. _He_ had been the one that escorted her from the school that day, from her friends that watched with high hopes that she would return soon as the girl they adored. _He_ was the one that could had spoken about it before, yet failed. He felt… terrified for her.

"Forgive me, Ryuuguu-san" he sighed, disheartened by the dilemma he had brought himself to.

His body finally departed from the door, clearing the threshold behind him. A box of cigarettes rose from the pocket of his black shirt between his fore and middle fingers with his thumb holding the opposite face, in the other hand, a lighter accompanied the sheets of paper and tobacco. Bringing the two hands together, he couldn't help but think about the day that he would return Rena to Hinamizawa, almost fearing what may happen.

She had advanced to Level 5 of the Syndrome following a series of stressful situations, not only once - but twice in the past. There was nothing holding her back from descending down the vicious spiral once again, leading her back into madness. Perhaps there was still time…

Time to atone for his lies…

_Sin_.

* * *

_Reflection - Rena_

Rena had crossed the room to the window, watching the sun shining brightly over the serene view of the town outside, over the park that was located down the road from the hospital. She smiled gently, unsure what it was that made her do so, perchance the tranquillity of the scene, the warmth of the sun caressing everything beneath. It wasn't uncommon for some of the younger patients of the wards to visit the park, remind the world that they were children before suffers. She had joined them on more than one occasion, watching the youngsters playing contently, the scene both lifted her spirits and struck her heart - some had yet to suffer true madness, whether they would encounter such a period in their lifetime or not. The dew-soaked grass glistened as it remained bathed in the warm sunlight, it was a perfect day. Keiichi's words mixed with the aura of the peaceful and uplifting day.

Her head slowly tilted backwards, bringing her eyes to the sky above the earth, a turquoise sea overhead with the occasional cotton cloud of pure white floating about like a fish swimming in water.

"Keiichi-kun, wait for me" she whispered. "I'll come and see you all again soon".

She remained frozen, unable to take her eyes from the heavens above, the tranquil gateway between the earth's citizens and the sun that beamed from so far away, extending its power to the planet. There was something about it all that drew her in, trapping her in its embrace; like someone was watching over her. Why she had focused above whilst she spoke to her distant friend was beyond her, like the sky was a line of communication that would carry her words back to him.

Her thoughts turned to her father, the man she was protecting by slaughtering the two victims she had. Overtime, she had come to assume that Ooishi or Keiichi, perchance someone else, had explained to him what had happened after her departure, sugar-coating the true extent to what she had endured. She imagined the empty fields of Hinamizawa, that man who made a half of her standing there with his hand raised high, welcoming her back with open arms, just as he had when she chose him over her mother, her other creator. The woman who had brought her into the world and then torn her from all she knew, dragging her into the first experience of the Syndrome and angering Oyashiro-sama.

The world was like an opposite to the place she stood, a distant place that shared nothing with the city she had lived in for almost a year: the urban busy lives that the residents lived, stressing as they continued to be pressured by their confided lives, Hinamizawa had no such atmosphere. That was what she loved about it.

A tapping clapped from the door behind, dragging her back to earth, drawing her eyes to the accessible barrier, could it be that Ooishi had rushed his moments of smoking? It couldn't be, he had nothing to worry about - at least, that had been what he showed her. Maybe it was just a nurse who had come to see how they were getting on. Anyone could be standing on the opposite side of the door. _Anyone…_

"Come in" she offered.

The door creaked open, revealing the being on the other side, a man far younger than Ooishi. It was boy, one whose eyes brought Keiichi to mind immediately. His hairstyle was surprising similar to the brunette's, dyed black. The eyes that met hers were of a chestnut shade, the mouth curving into a moderate smile. She watched him curiously, neither smiling nor frowning, though she recognised him as another patient on the ward, recalling his smiling face from the visits to the nearby park as he stood by the child that had called for him to play with them. Though he seemed to be the same age as her, they had never looked at each other in the same instant, never exchanging words, few of those around them were their age - some younger, some older, a varied collection of individuals - they couldn't be further apart.

"Excuse me for intruding" he started, bowing formally before her. Sapphire eyes simply watched in bewilderment, attempting to identify the meaning of his sudden appearance in her room. "I was hoping we could speak".

Rena hesitated, suddenly shrinking with the social ability of a shy child beginning at a new school. "Er- sure. Hello".

"My name's Jouichirou" the boy stated tenderly, rising from his physical greeting. "I remember seeing you about, then I noticed that man leave your room here. Is he a relative of yours? An uncle perhaps?"

Was that the reason he had come? To pry into her private affairs? Because someone had visited her? Inwardly, a sigh drifting through her body, her eyes fell from the boy.

"No, he's not. That was Detective Ooishi-san. He would come frequently and visit the village I lived in". He was still watching. Eyes on her. Boring into her. "Is that all you wanted?"

"Huh? N- no. I apologize, you probably think that I came just before I saw him and want to pry into your life" the boy panicked, "I- it's just that I've seen you around, but I never really approached you. I noticed that there's not many people around our age".

Azure eyes moved back to the boy, he had denied any suspicion in his sudden interest. But why had he not come before? She crossed the short distance between the window and the seat she had taken during Ooishi's visit, placing herself in the chair opposite the male.

"Honestly, I thought that man was someone who had come to arrange plans for when you leave" the boy answered. "You've been here for some time now, maybe long before I arrived. I've always been curious about your story".

"My story?" Rena asked, raising her head as her suspicion fizzed among puzzlement.

"Everyone's had something that's pushed them over the edge, something that caused for them to come here" the boy answered solemnly. "I was wondering if you felt comfortable sharing yours with someone, you've seem to avoid making contact with many people".

Rena's eyes narrowed and fell slightly, he had been observing her while they lived together in the hospital, seeing her lack of advances to befriend others like the younger patients that had beckoned him to play with them. Sitting alone and gazing out of the nearest window as though she felt trapped when not outside the protective walls.

"It's a sensitive matter" she uttered.

"They always are. Isn't it better to confide in someone?" the boy asked, smiling warmly. "If you don't want to go first, I will. But I can always leave and drop the subject altogether if that's what you'd prefer".

"Are you sure you'd be okay with talking about something so personal with me?" Rena asked. "We've never met before today".

"It's fine. I feel I can trust you" Jouichirou replied. "We've both been through something terrible to land us here".

There was no response from Rena, the girl keeping her eyes low, unable to meet the chestnut eyes fixed upon her, head sinking slowly between her shoulders.

"No… if you prefer to talk, then I'll play your game" she whispered. "How long have you been here then? I've seen you a number of times too".

"I guess it was around four months ago" Jouichirou began in a solemn tone. "I was feeling low and developed depression. When a doctor visited, he decided that it was too likely I'd bring harm upon myself. And when they decide I'm able to leave here… I'll have to find the new life waiting for me".

"What about your family? What about them?" Rena asked, lifting her eyes to view the boy whose eyes narrowed sorrowfully.

The black haired shook his head gradually, forcing his eyes closed as he did so, Rena's brow furrowed apprehensively at the reply she anticipated with dread.

"We were heading home when a storm swept past. The roads were terrible and before we knew it, the car skidded out of control" he proceeded. "The car smashed into a nearby tree and… left me alone. Their terrified screams never left my head, I hear them still, even faintly". The two hands on his lap rose, each laying over one of his ears in the feeble attempt to block out the chilling sounds of his past, the demise of his parents. "I did harm myself once, that's what pushed them to bring me here - they feared I'd repeat it and continue until my wrists would be littered with cuts".

The day in Okinomiya library came back to Rena - the day Takano had handed her the notebook entitled "File No. 34" for the first time. When Rena confided in the nurse about hw madness grasped every fibre of her, birthing maggots inside of her body and tainting her bloodstream with the foul larvae. Those things that crawled out of the cuts she made in her skin as she committed the same sin, unleashing her blood for the creatures wriggle free and force them out of her. Even recalling it had recreated them in her mind, seeing the creatures on her wrists, crawling out of the scars that had been left from the dark nights, carrying her blood with them.

"That's terrible. I'm sorry you lost your parents like that" she uttered regretfully. "I didn't mean to sound cold before, I-"

"You've nothing to apologize for" Jouichirou intervened, raising a hand to bring her to a sudden halt. "There were things happening outside of everyone's control - black ice is a deadly thing. Concealed by its nature".

"That happens a lot, it seems" Rena mumbled.

Jouichirou set his eyes on Rena who continued to gaze downwards, fists clenching tighter against the skin of her thighs. Her expression bore nothing outside of despair and regret, the face of a broken girl - exactly what he had seen her stand alone as, hiding away from the eyes of those that watched her.

"I came close to a year ago. There was a curse in the village I lived in, and it seems that I was the next to inherit it" she mumbled, trailing off, her voice a disheartened manner as she recalled a small fragment of the time aloud. "It's like being damned to suffer total madness, that's' what one goes through. I killed people, hurt my friends and almost slaughtered the whole school. Ordinarily, when one reaches the final stage as I did, they claw their throat out, their sanity erased as they do what their paranoia leads for them to before ripping open their throat and dying from blood loss - yet I'm alive". In the corner of her eye, the black haired boy stared at her with wider eyes than before. Fear? Surprise? Disgust? Rena turned her head slightly, aligning her eyes with him and watching through the hairs of her fringe. "You're afraid of me now, aren't you".

"No… not at all" the male responded gradually. "It's a surprise that someone with your face could kill another, but you said this curse had its hold on you, you weren't yourself at the time, were you? Then I don't fear you, I fear that curse. But you're not like that anymore, you've moved on from it".

"What we call Oyashiro-sama's Curse, other people call the Hinamizawa Syndrome - a scientific way for them to talk about the curse of a God that they don't seem to believe in" the girl added.

"Curse or Syndrome, you weren't yourself. You've grown from suffering whatever it was and now you seem like any other person I'd pass in the street" Jouichirou continued. "I could have never guessed you'd been through something so horrendous. I wish there was more I could do than just stand here and talk".

Rena gave no immediate response to the boy's wish, but simply open her eyes slightly more while she watched him sigh. In his eyes was the same helplessness she had seen in the brunette boy's azure eyes as he gazed up at her in the dump following the revelation that she had killed.

"You remind me of my friend" she commented. "Maebara Keiichi-kun. I think you two would get along, but I can't stand in your way of finding where you want to be".

"Family. Friends. Classmates. Your life sounds pleasant outside of that curse" Jouichirou chuckled lightly. "Maybe I'll make an effort to find this home of yours and visit it with you".

"Visit Hinamizawa?" she echoed. "Why don't you come with us?"

"Go with you?" the boy half-gasped.

"When you're discharged from this place, we could come and see you again" Rena elucidated. "I could show you what Hinamizawa looks like".

"You're leaving here now?"

"No. In about a month, Ooishi promised me he'd take me home".

Jouichirou smiled at the gesture made by an authority figure to a vulnerable girl. "He really is nice, isn't he".

Rena gave a nod, the corners of her mouth raising to almost forge a smile. Jouichirou's expression softened from the one of surprise at the offer to one of contentment. The same optimistic sparkle in his eyes that had shimmered when he first opened the door shone again."When are you going to leave?"

The question caught him off-guard, he had yet to learn himself. Deep inside of him, the wish to leave shortly, as early as Rena if fate was to smile upon him. Only time could tell.

"I don't want you to feel alone, I'll show you what kind of life you could have by showing you the lives of Hinamizawa, the life I was given back when I returned to live with my father".

"I can't be sure when I leave" Jouichirou replied. "But I wouldn't miss the opportunity to see this Hinamizawa. To see what you and your friends see and feel everyday".

From behind the dark haired boy, a knock sounded from the other side of the door, drawing both sets of eyes to the wooden barrier. Both of the teenagers fell silent in the seconds that passed like minutes.

"Come in" Rena called.

The door slowly creaked open, revealing the Okinomiya officer that had returned from his break from the institution, smoking the cigarette he had been in the process of putting together as he exited the building.

"Ooishi-san" the girl commented.

"Ryuuguu-san, have you been making friends and keeping them a secret from me?" Ooishi chuckled, settling his eyes onto the boy who watched in silence. The same man he had witnessed leaving the room and taking a moment to collect his thoughts before moving away.

"Ooishi-san, what are you insinuating?" Rena asked, lacking the blush that would have coloured her face in any other situation. "This is the first time we've spoken, he came here when he saw you leave the room. You said your name was Jouichirou, right?"

"Yeah" the boy replied with a nod before he turned to face the officer and bow. "Yamamoto Jouichirou, sir".

"Ah, a fine young man" Ooishi chuckled. "Detective Kuraudo Ooishi".

"Ah, Jouichirou, I never gave you my name" Rena suddenly commented. "It's Rena. Ryuuguu Rena".

The boy turned to face Rena, smiling in gratefully that he had been capable of learning the girl's name. That was when the officer's hand touched upon his shoulder, twisting his neck as though the man had physically turned his head to face him.

"You remind me of someone, a man that came to Hinamizawa a few years ago" the elderly man stated with a smile. "A very skilful, reckless man: Akasaka".

"Physically, he may look like your Akasaka, Ooishi-san" Rena responded. "But there's something about him that makes me think of Keiichi-kun. Though I can't put my finger on it yet".

"Maebara-san? I'm sure he would get along with this young man. I'm sure that he's a lot like that young rebel" Ooishi commented, locking his eyes onto the boy standing to his left.

"Ooishi-san, you made a request for me to stay a little longer to suit you, now I have a favour to ask" Rena uttered, dramatically altering the direction of the conversation. "Jouichirou would like to see Hinamizawa, he's nowhere else to go when he leaves this place. I'd like to show him Hinamizawa when he is discharged from here. You know the way between here and the village, could you bring me here to meet with him and take him there when the times finally comes?"

"Ryuuguu-san… alright then" Ooishi answered, slightly uneasy. The request was one that had caught him off-guard and struck. At the same time, the two could learn to grow by being there for each other. Jouichirou could become Rena's support and visa-versa.

"Thank you, Ooishi-san".

Jouichirou echoed the grateful appreciation towards the officer - an aging man going out of his way to transport the both of them to Hinamizawa to begin rebuilding their existences outside of the walls that surrounded them. The boy turned to Rena and flashed her a smile, she had been the one to step forward and make the request, as an acquaintance of the man, someone who he had worked to protect in the past.

In response to the beam from her new companion, Rena forced the same expression back at him, dragging the corners of her mouth to form a smile - a real smile. As painful as it was, as inexperienced as she had become, fate had smiled down upon the three for just a moment, perhaps as many as those that Jouichirou had been present for. Rebuilding their lives and entering the flow of life in Hinamizawa life was no easy task, but the others would be standing there with arms open for her to run into. Mion, Keiichi, Satoko, Rika, and Shion - they would be there. She hadn't seen any of the news reports regarding the incident at the school, unable to see what people made of her in the phase of absolute madness, unable to see just what they had captured of the incident, what people said. She hadn't been strong enough to face reality, that she had risked everyone's lives over something that seemed impossible when she looked back.

Much time had passed and some may have agreed to bury the incident, no matter how dramatic and terrifying it may have been. She would walk into the village again with Jouichirou by her side, ready to show everyone that she had grown as a person, that she wasn't insane. She was the sole survivor of those that had experienced the final level of the Syndrome that the villagers called "Oyashiro-sama's Curse". Stronger than before, holding a sense of belief in her friends and those that waited for her, eager to feel her father's arms around her. She had made a new friend on the other side of the barrier that the Shrine God had placed around the village, just as Keiichi had been, someone that could make her stronger. Old and new times would collide, mixing and entwining to form the spiral of her life, the one pointed towards the sky rather than to Hell, to the Onigafuchi Swamp. The sunlight bathing the city extended over the future ahead.

* * *

_What you were; was irreplaceable. What you said, still burns in my soul. What your fate became, I cannot forgive._

_Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Reflection, Chapter 2 - "Return"._


	2. Return

**Higurashi no Naku Koro ni - Reflection [Jukko-hen]**

_Continuation from Tsumihoroboshi-hen. "Everyone has been claimed by the fateful June and I stand the lone survivor. Clouds pass over the sun, abandoning the village of Hinamizawa; my home - reclaimed by demons"._

* * *

The sky flared like the flames it shared colour with as the sun drew closer to the soft earth. Together they stood before her, beneath her, like a congress that had gathered to hear a speech from a politician ahead of election. She stood atop the camper van buried amongst the mounds of trash, clothes in a black rubber suit to avoid staining her clothes in blood from her secretive toil. Mion, Rika, Satoko, Keiichi, gathered once again - originally heading into the dump with the intention of locating the supposed ghost of the man who fell victim to the first wrath of Oyashiro-sama, the dismembered construction worker whose death triggered the mysterious chain of murders and disappearances.

She spoke of her sins, robbing both the uncle of Satoko and the girlfriend of her own father of their lives; their selfish, greedy, useless lives. Having them walk the Earth without punishment would only breed more insolent beings, unworthy of living. Keiichi stepped forward, asking her why - why she had taken the law into her own hands and become Hinamizawa's vigilante and in such a cruel way. Why she hadn't turned to her friends for support, she had moved ahead on her own, using such drastic actions to deal with her family's problems, bringing about a swift end to the troubles her father would have from the blond man named Houjou Teppei, preventing him from falling into debt to the man as several others had, hearing the hushed woman's voice talk about how she could get them out of the deal safely. The secret meeting at the café in Okinomiya that she was never supposed to hear. He insisted that had she turned to them, they could have been of help; that they could have brought about a path without staining her hands with the blood of the two vile adults.

She challenged him. Asking him exactly what the four of them would have done. He attempted to answer strongly, ultimately failing to give a real reply. Rena lifted her head, revealing her azure eyes sparkling as brightly as the setting sun, beaming sincerely - she had won that round, there could be nothing that they would do to avoid the gruesome events that she had chosen to undertake. She was sure of it.

"It's impossible" she muttered. Her eyes closed to strengthen her content expression, a true smile of happiness - exactly what she believed she had found in that moment, satisfaction that her friends couldn't have altered her actions. That she had done right, by justice. That she had done nothing wrong. "Keiichi-kun, you couldn't have done anything. Everyone else too… Nobody could have done anything".

"Well… that's…" Keiichi feebly protested, trailing off with each word he spoke, trying to put together something to argue back with.

"Friends…" Rena intervened, resuming her light, yet solemn tone. "Those companions you speak of are only friends during those fun, yet unimportant times. When painful times come, they won't be your ally".

"That's-" Keiichi cried out.

"It's always been like that" Rena called, bringing the brunette male to a premature halt. "Even when I moved away". Her eyes surveyed around her, across the mountains formed by human debris, left to rot in the deserted site of such a tragedy. A place she had made a second home out of - somewhere to clear her mind, to cry alone where no-one could see. A place where droplets of blood clung to the ground and the stench of death rose from the corpses thrown into bin bags, laced with masking tape as a means for concealing the contents and hidden in a fridge near to the camper van. Despite her efforts, the slim hand of the woman remained exposed from beneath the pile, streams of blood dry and attracting the flies that buzzed incessantly about the hideous sight. "I stopped thinking whether I should tell my friends. Because… it's not like anyone is going to help. And no-one can help"."Why?"

"Eh?"

Tears slipped from Keiichi's eyes, hidden beneath the shadow of his fringe, sliding down to his chin and then plummeting to their end against the harsh ground of the otherwise abandoned site. Clear droplets reflecting the light of the day's final hours until the end embraced them. "Why won't you trust us?"

"Kei-chan" Mion whispered, watching the boy with eyes bearing pity for him.

"Maybe like you said, even if you told us, we might not be able to come up with the best solution. But… even so…" he continued, clenching his right fist by his side tighter. His head rose, revealing the tears clinging to his damp eyes, the azure flames of despair burning inside of him, mixing with the determination to make everything right again shimmering from the depths of his eyes. "I believe we would have reached a better future than now!"

"'A better future than now'?" Rena echoed, smirking at such a thought - he had proven there was no alternative. What she had done was right. "There is no such thing". Keiichi's jaws clenched fiercely, enough for his body to tremble with rage at the thought of there being nothing better than murdering people who stood in the way of happiness. From where he stood, what Rena spoke was nothing but nonsense. "This is… this is the best possible future".

"_Usoda!_" Keiichi yelled in protest, squeezing his eyes shut and expelling the tears clinging onto the edges of his sockets as his head dipped, his pained expression turned from Rena and to the ground. The girl took a breath of surprise from the reaction. A couple of seconds passed before Keiichi raised his head to face her, eyes swimming just as quickly. "To prove my point… Rena, you're crying even now".

"Huh? Who is?" Rena asked tauntingly, tilting her head forward and raising a curious eyebrow to accompany her smirk. What he claimed amused her, she wanted to see just what it was he believed. "Me? When did I shed a tear?"

"Just now. You're still crying" he claimed strongly, voice matching his will to break this cycle of madness beginning to occur. To prevent any more murders, to stop anything else diverting his friends from their usual ways of life. Rena's eyes widened, losing their glimmer as the words struck a nerve inside of her, stunning her, and she couldn't comprehend what it was he was saying. Her pupils shrank dramatically, almost as though they disappeared from her eyes completely, along with her confidence in proving to him that what she did was the best - and only - solution to her troubles. "Do you not understand this yourself?"

Her eyes widened again, a gasp escaping from her lips as though the realisation of her actions had finally dawned on her - those moments of losing herself to her murderous intentions that had slain two humans had no reason in them. No consideration for what she was doing, those she would leave grieving for the pair. She had killed… _twice_.

Keiichi rubbed his eyes against the sleeve of his white school shirt as he continued on, almost unable to even look at Rena after the acts she had committed. "Rena, what you did is the worst imaginable thing". His face rose from the material, eyes remained tightly shut. "You're an idiot! But I, as your friend, will accept what you did, Rena. 'That there was no other way'… I will accept that this kept running through your head until you concluded that this was your last resort".

She gazed at him, a sense of loss in her eyes, of fear and regret beneath the creased brow that guided her narrow eyebrows to adopt the expression. Her mouth hung open slightly, watching him as he uttered each word that continued to force the message inside of her further, like a drill that aimed to pierce her heart and reveal the true extent of her methodology.

He straightened up, smiling, speaking in a much calmer tone. Like he understood. "That's why, I'll try to understand you, Rena. We're the only ones who know of these awful bags. If we keep it a secret, then it's okay. There's nothing for you to worry about, Rena".

Without hesitation, he stepped forward, climbing the short distance between himself and her, lifting himself onto the roof of the campier van, provoking a defensive step back from Rena who watched in bewilderment. He rose before her, standing opposite her at the same height, opening his hand as a means of accepting her, to bring her back from the nightmarish world she had unintentionally stumbled into.

"Rena" he beckoned.

She gazed at the hand anxiously, he had claimed she had committed a heinous act, yet was willing to accept her as things had been before. She was a murderer, but he wanted her to take his hand, to walk back into everyday life like nothing had happened - Teppei and Rina would have merely run off together somewhere. How could they so lightly forgive her for things they insisted were horrible acts? Her mind ran wild with thoughts about why they cared so much, why they were reaching out.

A small hand touched the top of Keiichi's palm, but not Rena's. The brunette's eyes met the sight of Rika by his side, the small sapphire-haired girl smiling innocently as she uttered her catchphrase of _"Mii~"_ happily.

"Rika-chan" Rena muttered, perplexed by why the girl bothered to reach out. She had said nothing, instead cowered by Satoko's side - why did she want to invite Rena back into the real world?

A hand of matching proportions touched Rika's, drawing the eyes of Keiichi, Rena and Rika to the mischievous blonde girl who smiled despite the deep, hidden truth that one of the butchered corpses not too far behind her was uncle - as abusive and terrible as he was, he was the only remaining blood relative of the girl's.

"Satoko".

"Both Rika and I lost our parents and are alone, but even today, we never cried about it" she spoke optimistically. "That's because we had everyone, in a family called 'friendship'".

"'A family called friendship', huh?" Keiichi asked, smiling brightly as the title that the girl usually playing his rival had given the bonds between her friends. "That's a good analogy you came up with, Satoko".

As the fourth hand fell over the others, the green haired club president continued on, rubbing the back of her head embarrassedly as she tried to follow the words of her younger comrades. "I thought the precious value of friendship was something I, as the Club President, should explain. But… well, well. I guess I fail at being the Club President, huh?" she chuckled.

"Mion" Keiichi exhaled, touched that even without words from her heart, Mion had joined in the effort to remind the final member of what reality was, that they were there for her, even if they couldn't supply an answer worthy of consideration. Mion opened her eyes, maintaining her smile.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't joke here". She turned to Rena. "To not understand the circumstances you were in, as your friend - as the Club President - I am ashamed. Please forgive me. Of course, we will forgive the fact that you didn't talk with us. Because… that means that we weren't worthy enough for you to talk to us. We are accountable for that incompetence. That's why I won't condemn you".

"Rena is… a murderer, you know?" Rena whimpered, tears building at the corners of her eyes, clinging to her eyelashes as she gazed at the four smiling faces opposite, overcome by their caring. Yet feeling a lack of worth, they were reaching out to a tainted girl, one who had already committed unforgivable deeds. "Ill be a burden to everyone".

"This isn't a dream or an illusion. And it's not too late, either" Keiichi responded strongly. "Rena, you still have a choice to make. So choose; you can still make it! Come here!"

Rather than reaching forward, Rena brought her right hand up, brushing the knuckle of her finger against the dampness around her eye. As her hand lowered, Keiichi reached out and seized it, bringing it to the stack before her and laying it on top, resting it atop Mion's. Rena gazed up, staring into the four faces that smiled brightly at her, waiting for her to accept their wishes to return to them. Her eyes narrowed slightly, tears building quicker than previously, a sharp intake sounded as she tried not to fall apart in front of them.

Nevertheless, the tears trickled down her cheeks, falling from her chin. Eyes closed and mouth opened, a sob escaped. The true Rena had fallen back into the world where her friends stood, a comforting hand from Mion fell upon her back, welcoming her home.

* * *

**「ひぐらしのなく頃に」**

**熟考編**

**Chapter 2 - Return**

Wild gusts ruffled Rena's hair as tree passed by like people standing in the streets of a busy town centre, each insignificant, each without a name or history. Unimportant to her. Nobody outside Hinamizawa mattered. The sky overhead was a serene blue, much like that day a month before then when the boy sitting behind her had waltzed into her life, opening his arms where few would, resisting the unbearable urge to turn away and recoil in horror at the past, misdeeds of yesterdays drifting further and further into history, no longer just weeks or months behind. The weather of the new Spring matched that of the preceding summer - warm, pleasant, void of any warnings of impending destruction.

It was strange to think that a year before, Maebara Keiichi didn't exist to her. Strange to think that she had only known him a month, yet they bonded easily and felt as though they had met much earlier in their young lives. Keiichi apparently had that effect, to force bonds and friendships easily - a quality that many would strive to accomplish if it was absent inside of them. The months of May and June seemed to long looking back, all of the fun times that the group had shared, the exclusive club of the Hinamizawa Branch School. The same club established around about the time of her return to Hinamizawa. Life outside of the tranquil village seemed like a distant memory, like a dream, fading with experiences far more enjoyable since the days of isolation and cold shoulders from those around her, including her mother. The woman who had decided to live her life with another man, choosing a stranger over the partner who fathered a child with her. The day that she last returned to Hinamizawa from such a distance was exactly the same as this day she found herself living again.

With spring came the blossoming of armies of flowers in each village and each field, anywhere that had housed the delicate plants previously. As the vehicle rolled swiftly along the roads, the armies became little more than blurs without time to inspect details about them. Fields freshly ploughed met the same minimal assessment. Rivers that ran along or under the roads along the route drew the sapphire eyes of the girl, watching the calm flow of water as it was carried by a force outside of its control.

Behind Rena, Jouichirou watched the same scenes, drawing his eyes back to the inside of the vehicle, eyes drifting from Rena to Ooishi at the wheel of the casual car. The two with a common past intrigued him, he sat as the outsider of the trio, with no history with either of the two from the region wherein their destination lied. The possibility that he would travel with them came as a complete surprise to him, believing that he would spend much longer in the hospital to deal with the loss of his family in the incident. Yet word reached him that he was capable of discharging himself in time for the initial trip to Hinamizawa, to experience the past by Rena's side as she faced the delighted faces of her friends, classmates and her father. To confront those she left behind when she departed from the village and rebuild fractured bridges left to stand meekly over the period between the previous summer and the current spring.

As promised, Ooishi had come to collect the pair shortly after his retirement; less than a week old, ready to transport them to the village that Rena had spoken of, the world that seemed to distant - an opposite - to that which Jouichirou had lived throughout his life. She had spoken commonly and fondly of the days where the group would stay behind after class, meeting to play games with punishments for the loser ranging across various possibilities - usually ending with the loser dressed in a costume that would trigger the moments of delusions she would experience and cry out that she'd take it home no matter what anyone else did to prevent it. Such occasions peaked his interest, he desired to see times in her stories happen in front of his eyes, to see the idyllic everyday life of this village plagued with the bloodstains of a mystery beneath its peaceful surface, the murky curse hidden beneath the cover of a wonderful place, rising once a year. June.

Three months were left until the Watanagashi Festival that he had learned of would take place, where the mystery occurred and the darkness of Hinamizawa revealed its ugly face - the murder of one individual and the disappearance of another - one offered to Oyashiro-sama and another _"demoned away"_. The trend had crossed five years and the approaching summer would mark the sixth if such mystery was to happen.

'_Six years, huh?'_ Jouichirou asked himself inwardly, pressing the left side of his jaw against the palm of his hand, watching the scenery pass idly by.

It was difficult to consider how many years the tradition would continue, if there would ever be an end to it. He was pondering about a distant ritual, a distant place with traditions and standards far different from those he would be used to. Lives in a village without any major cities nearby would be far different from those in the cities absent from the former's region. He had no comprehension of Hinamizawa outside of the words that had been passed to him; words of an insider. Ooishi had yet to talk about Hinamizawa or the mysteries that plagued it; those that he had investigated.

Travelling along the road brought back memories of the trips he would take with his parents - days when they would cross plains matching his current surroundings, days when they would watch the shoppers of a city strolling along the streets as they enjoyed their day of leisure. The destination was always unique - a holiday retreat near the base of mountains, a journey to the edge of the country and experience the sea, aiming for a city hosting an event that had attracted the eye of either parents. Those days were long gone and Jouichirou missed both his mother and father dearly, their passing months old, buried somewhere far from where he was heading. Moving forward in his life as Rena planned, their methods far different. Both with the same goal in mind, each ready to tackle the world on their own. Jouichirou's thoughts turned to his parents and where in the sky they were, watching down on him with bright smiles, glad that he had found someone to confide his past troubles with, someone he shared things in common with, someone with the same motivation for moving ahead, to live through life, as he did.

Before him, Rena smiled contently - rejection lingered in her mind, that the others may still bare scars that they were insisting on hiding while uttering such comforting words to her - yet Ooishi had stressed how that wasn't the case. How Keiichi had led them back to the camper van that the five of them stood on, Rena's hand atop as he clutched it, insisting that they weren't going to condemn her for her actions. To see those faces after so long, she would eventually slip into the flow of Hinamizawa's daily life, having experienced the feeling once before, knowing how swiftly Keiichi adapted to the peaceful routines. There was no doubt that she would be held back and continue her education where she and Keiichi left off, the boy ascending to the grade above, but he always helped her with the problems she faced with the academic challenges, it was Mion he teased - the cerulean haired girl a whole grade ahead of them who asked of him the same assistance. Each and every time he commented on how he didn't mind helping Rena, but how it was worrying that a girl older than him needed his help, curious how she had advanced so far before his arrival.

Maybe the group would go easy on her during their games, resuming their taunting of Keiichi to avoid penalising Rena as they had him once he joined the village's single class. She wondered how many adorable costumes she had missed out on wanting to take home, how many times Keiichi had been forced to belittle curry in front of the curry-loving Chie-sensei. How many of those fun days she loved to talk about with her friends had she missed? How many more days would they spend together at the school - it wouldn't be long before Mion, and then Keiichi, would graduate and move into the adult world within Hinamizawa, leaving Rena with Rika and Satoko alone amongst the students, inevitably becoming the eldest student while her friends continued without problems, doing her best to continue the small club she cared so deeply for.

The wind rushing through the car's interior, hitching a ride to the village whistled both wildly and a soft melodic tune. Gently playing with the hair of each of the occupants, Ooishi unaffected with his short greyed hairs, laying atop his head with very little interference. Jouichirou paid no attention to the chilling breeze that flooded the vehicle, gazing through the glass of his window to the picturesque scene outside. Rena's eyes narrowed slightly shielding them from the full force of the wind, yet at the same time not losing sight of the fields passing by.

Since arriving at the hospital, Ooishi had become deathly silent, a fact that both of the adolescences had picked up on. However, Rena's mind had been drawn to her home, the destination laying ahead of them, filled with the thoughts of the faces of her friends, of stories that they would exchange, how life in Hinamizawa had resumed despite the drama of the previous Watanagashi Festival. Jouichirou had nothing in the past to rely upon for his expectations of Hinamizawa, he would be meeting people for the first time, it was another ordinary trip for him; Ooishi's solemn mood had caught his attention much more significantly than it had Rena. The dark haired boy turned to the now retired officer.

"Ooishi-san, you've been awfully quiet. Is something the matter?" he inquired.

Ooishi took a moment to reply, drawing in a deeper than usual breath before his eyes moved to the boy's reflection in the mirror hanging between himself and Rena.

"It's nothing" he exhaled, the breath holding the qualities of a sigh, provoking a raised eyebrow from Jouichirou.

The boy turned his head from the driver, his eyes tracing the features chiselled across his face from the angle he had - the left side alone exposed. Something about the aging man felt off, from his personal deduction based on one encounter with him previously. There was little for him to go by on any matter as the three journeyed quietly towards the tranquil village that had connected the three once strangers. Fate worked in peculiar ways; that much he could comprehend.

With each spin of the wheel, destiny drew ever closer. Reality. Truth.

"Jouichirou-kun?"

Jouichirou snapped out of his brief separation from the real world, his head lifting sharply from the palm of his hand as though the gentle voice had woken him during the course of a lesson in school. He turned to Rena, seeing her gazing at him from her place in front, her brow creased somewhat, his eyebrows lowered, reducing his surprised expression.

"Rena… I'm sorry. What did you want?" he inquired.

"I was wondering if you're feeling okay" she uttered softly. "It looked like you were drifting off, are you tired? I could always wake you when we get to Hinamizawa".

"N- no. It's fine" Jouichirou protested meekly. "I was just thinking about things and wasn't paying attention. I don't want to sleep Rena, I want to be there when you catch your first glimpse of Hinamizawa again".

Rena's concerned expression lifted, replaced with a sincere smile of gratitude towards Jouichirou. To shrug off her concerns, he smiled back. Her recollections of Hinamizawa stretched across many aspects of daily life, how he and Keiichi would surely be friends, how the others would act. These tales intrigued him as to who could be responsible for the murders, unsure if he was capable of fully believing the legend of Oyashiro-sama. Yet he said nothing, feeling just how strongly Rena believed in the Shrine God that had plagued the village with such attacks after their victory in the Dam War. Why the God would continue was something far beyond his understanding. Peculiar behaviour of a divinity towards its followers.

The scenes of untouched nature and freshly ploughed fields, flowers streaming along the roadside like gathers to an event - the sea of nature's colours - faded behind houses rapidly increasing in frequency - from small isolated cottages to larger residences, growing into the outskirts of Okinomiya. Rena drew closer to the window, laying her fingers over the dormant barrier as the car slowed behind additional traffic that occurred in front of them, allowing her eyes to open to their full extent, the quaint smile on her face growing gradually. Jouichirou watched curiously, he hadn't seen Rena so gleeful and optimistic before - she had been excited about returning home, but to a degree of the emotion she let flood out of her.

'_She no longer feels alone'_ he mentally examined. _'Just as I, she was left standing on her own without any clear path to take for the sake of her future, to beat the twist that fate had thrown against her. Now that she and I have met, we've both moving forward. She will have her friends like I will have her - we're no longer alone because we have each other and those that we care for. Mother… father… I miss them terribly, but I know they're alive inside of me. They're watching over me. Perhaps it was them that guided me to Rena that day, closing the distance between us by holding out a branch for me to take, an opportunity that I couldn't be happier to have seized. If that's the case… thank you'_.

Hazel eyes rose from the streets littered with shoppers and residents passing by blithely to the peaceful sky, the occasional cloud hovering without any danger of colliding with another, ending its unique shape. The city around was so alive, making it difficult to believe that a silent village lay further on, a short enough distance for the children to race on their bikes as Rena spoke of.

Rena smiled seeing the convenience stores; the variety lined along the sides of the road that she could remember from her times visiting the neighbouring town. Old times were flooding back, no longer bringing tears of regret that she had ruined the lives of those she cared about - with the hopelessness of returning to the former life gone, so had a large portion of her guilt, allowing her to become the girl that had lived in the village for a year before the incident that caused the breakdown inside of her. The people around continued, falling behind the car as it accelerated smoothly, following the flow of traffic through the active street, Rena watching the scene contently as she opened her mouth.

"Hey, Jouichirou-kun" she uttered.

"Hm? What is it?" he asked, turning his head to watch her.

"You're a year older than me, right? I bet Mii-chan would like having you around - she was in the grade above Keiichi-kun and I" Rena commented. "She enjoyed having him around, I believe she was close to Satoshi-kun too".

"Satoshi?" Jouichirou echoed.

"Satoko-chan's elder brother, remember? He transferred during the fourth year of the sacrifices" Rena replied, continuing to evade making eye contact with him.

Despite the downcast end to Satoshi's time in Hinamizawa, Rena continued to smile, like she didn't care about the grimness surrounding the tale of the Shrine God. His gentle smile faded to nothing before he turned his head, watching each of the shoppers wandering the streets; to him, they would fade in a matter of seconds, never to enter his life again. That was how he had found life to be. Each of those striding along the pathways, they had no idea of the tragedies the two teenagers had been through, possibly lucky enough to have not experienced a loss themselves. Everyone in Hinamizawa knew each other, many learning of the Maebara family immediately once they purchased a large manor, moving into a new life. A life of peace away from the worries of city-life, where the stress of hurried life would send the days flying past without notice. A whistle of the wind floated in the air as the car continued on, like a song of the town, a melody chanting to him from the area itself.

"It's strange" he muttered to himself, raising his eyes above the roofs of houses and businesses alike. "The accident has offered me the life I had desired. Just the one thing missing. They…did fate let them sacrifice themselves for me?"

The streets shortly thinned in life, Ooishi tilting his head to the right side of the street.

"This is the area I live in, Yamamoto-san" he commented much chirpier than his previous words. "I was stationed here in Okinomiya, that's how I came to meet Ryuuguu-san and work on the case of the deaths and disappearances. Now that I'm retired, I'm settling down here for a bit, it makes sense to enjoy some time here before heading off and leaving my colleagues with nothing more than fond memories".

The elderly man gave a slight chuckle, a sign that his light-hearted attitude hadn't completely evaporated yet. Signs of the town fell behind, the rooftops of building sinking beneath the horizon behind, Jouichirou set his eyes on Ooishi who had fallen silent after his brief rise in spirits. Nature reclaimed the scenery again, trees hindering the far view. Moments without sound from the others passed, only the incessant purring of the car's engine, the crunch of gravel beneath the tyres.

In the distance, the roofs of houses poked through the trees acting as a veil, slowly growing from behind the leafy guard to reveal a small village - Hinamizawa. Rena sucked in her breath, sounding her excitement at having finally returned, finally able to see the place of her birth and the village that beckoned her to return each time she had stayed away for an extended period. The sunlight bathing the village seemed like nothing to the glimmer of hope and ecstasy, her head inching closer towards the window, hair flapping fiercely in the speeding breeze created by the car's momentum. The village seemed dormant, like no-one ad ventured out of the buildings that housed them or their profession, the large yard situated around the school, out of trio's sight, as empty as the roads. From the roads built upon an incline to offer those heading out a view of the village, the three descended, heading towards the ground level of Hinamizawa, the level that would have been submerged had the Dam War ended in favour of the construction workers and the government.

The vehicle rolled from the slope, continuing on an even plain and through the thinning trees, opening up the path to the village. What seemed like several more minutes passed before the trees rolled away completely, permitting a large open site for one to enter the village. Around the once invisible barrier to the village, a large chain link fence stood, much higher than any ordinary person would stand. Facing from the village, a sheet of paper hung to those approaching from the outside, attached hastily and left to flap feebly in the spring breeze as though desiring to soar high into the sky and away from the binding that kept it hanging without a will.

Rena's expression altered immediately, smile fading into a curious oval tipped on its side as she perceived the fence around the village. Inside, her heart began to throw itself against her chest - something didn't feel right. Something had gone wrong.

Cautiously, the door opened and the girl unfastened the seatbelt keeping her against the seat without taking her eyes from the scrap of paper hanging. Jouichirou observed the same scene, left as bewildered as Rena when there was no sign of human life around, just the fence fixed in place that separated them from the village - what had happened to the Hinamizawa from Rena's stories? Rena approached the fence gradually, staring at the peak of the fence - her petite frame couldn't even barely reached the central bar running along the midway point vertically of the barrier. Atop, strips of barbed wire had been wrapped in the same manner as the sign - those working on the boundary cared not for the state they left it in, like they wanted to move on as quickly as they possible could. Rena raised her right hand, slipping the narrow fingers through the diamond gaps between each narrow strip of metal and closing them on the other side, gripping the fence as though she planned to scale it to get home.

Ahead, the rooftops of houses poked above the ground, the lush grass and trees hat would lead them along a clear path was beginning to grow wildly. The village's tranquil appearance had become something more, something… almost sinister. Rena stared becomingly, unable to comprehend just what had happened to provoke the barricade to rise, preventing her from passing through into the village she had so eagerly awaited. Behind her, Ooishi and Jouichirou approached leisurely, guilt imprinted across the former police officer's face while Jouichirou watched with naivety that was beginning to vex him; wishing he could understand what had happened. All he could tell was that he had discovered the answer to Ooishi's previous dismayed attitude during the journey to the village - an answer that neither he nor Rena were going to like.

"O- Ooishi-san…" Rena breathed without taking her eyes from the haunting sight. An empty entrance to the village she had seen so vivid and satisfying during her time on the other side of the previously invisible borderlines. "Why is this here? What's going on?"

"Ryuuguu-san…" Ooishi sighed, casting his eyes beneath the girl in front of him. "I didn't want things to happen like this, but your condition for a long time was far too unstable…"

The aging man's trailing off drew Jouichirou's eyes to him, the boy creasing his forehead when anxiety swelled inside of him - what was he talking about?

"Ooishi?" he uttered. "What's going on?"

A moment passed before Ooishi finally sighed, the first sign of acknowledging Jouichirou's inquiry - something on the minds of both adolescences. Just as Jouichirou's patience came to an end and his necessity to knowledge grasped his mind, the man opened his eyes wistfully, gazing at the scene of Rena standing on the outside of the barrier, regarding her home village - a scene of the melancholic qualities as his eyes.

"Ryuuguu-san, not long after you left…" Ooishi replied hesitantly. "…There was an incident".

"'An incident'?" Rena gasped, widening her eyes slightly. At the corners of her eyes, tears began to grow, the sheer terror of what was coming, distress swelling within her, pumping adrenaline through her veins as apprehension raced trough her, voice suffering from the emotion building inside.

"What kind of incident?" Jouichirou inquired, continuing to watch Ooishi, intrigued by his choice of words. "What kind of incident could have caused this fence to appear? Are they trying to keep outsiders away from Hinamizawa?"

Ooishi's head lowered slightly, eyes falling shut. "It was just the night after Ryuuguu-san left Hinamizawa following her admission to the hospital… There was a gas leak…"

His eyes remained fixed on the distraught girl; there was a large risk in informing her of the horrific truth about the fate of the ill-starred Hinamizawa. Her reaction was unpredictable; she could fall apart and undo months of work, she could descend down the levels of the curse of Oyashiro-sama - the religious label for what was otherwise known as the Hinamizawa Syndrome - he couldn't be sure. But sugarcoating the truth under the words that Keiichi spoke and false promises of seeing her friends could no longer work, time had run out. Regardless, she had a right to know, lying was no longer going to help - it may have cushioned the blow of her long-term separation from her friends in the hospital, but Ooishi had become very familiar when Rena's reaction to lies, a far less pleasant side to her that would rise from the depths of her shadow.

"It was a normal night, moon shining just like the night that you and Maebara-san confronted each other on the roof of the school building. The sun wasn't long from rising" he continued. "It guided us to the village when we came to ask some more questions over the incident at the school - the hostage situation that you unintentionally created when troubled greatly over the string of murders and the claim of aliens invading. There was… nothing we could do".

"Wh- what are you saying?" Rena asked weakly, throat tightening as tears slipped down her warm cheeks, unable to cling onto their origin any longer.

"There were many bodies - much more than just hundreds" Ooishi sighed, apprehensive of carrying on, delving into details that would disturb the girl further. "We arrived at the school, your friends… Maebara-san and the girls had been gathered there".

"They were at the school? At night?" Rena asked, lifting her head by millimetres, gazing deep into the village ahead, wishing more than anything in the world to wake and realise that a terrible dream had befallen her since the news that she was to return to the village. "But why?"

"We could never figure that out, there was many details that have yet to be concluded" Ooishi continued to report. "There were several others - the students that had been in the school when you took the building as a hostage situation, the teacher and principal, several elders. It seemed that many people had been gathered. When we discovered everyone, they were in the same conditions; slumped against lockers and sprawled upon the floorboards, saliva trails drying from where they had slipped from the mouths, tears pretty much the same. The eyes of many - if not all - remained wide open like they were in shock. Most of your friends were found together in that shape".

"'Most'?" Rena repeated, squeaking through her unhinged sobs. On the other side of the fence, her fingers tightened, bringing the nails of each finger back and pressing against the skin of her palm.

"Maebara-san. Sonozaki Mion. Sonozaki Shion and Houjou Satoko" Ooishi listed calmly. "Furude-san was found murdered at the entrance to the Furude Shrine. She had been dissected and her stomach removed from her corpse".

"Rika-chan slaughtered outside of her family's shrine? But why?" Rena whispered faintly. "Why would someone do such terrible things? Were they the ones responsible for leading everyone to the school?"

"Nobody has been able to determine that. There may have been an outside grudge against the family; with both of her parents gone from the third year in the sequence of deaths and disappearances, perhaps somebody decided to take on the final member of the family - one of the Three Great Families of Hinamizawa" Ooishi estimated. "The marsh where the volcanic gases spread from is being filled in - the same Onigafuchi Swamp where it seemed Furude-san's mother brought an end to her own life almost three years ago. There's much work to be done, it's such a large-scale operation, all so that nothing like this disaster can happen again".

"S- so… I'm the only survivor of this incident? I'm the only person from Hinamizawa left?" Rena asked timidly, terrified of the answer she predicted to follow. Tears continued to stream down her face like the river flowing through the village, under the bridge that she and Keiichi would meet Mion at during their morning travels to school.

"The only resident who was living in Hinamizawa at the time; it seems that is the case" Ooishi exhaled sorrowfully. "There were others living outside of the village whose origins lay in Hinamizawa. The Kimiyoshi family who were also one of the Three Great Families largely live outside of Hinamizawa - in Okinomiya".

Rena's head bowed, sobs emitting from her tightened throat. The tears streaming down her face slipped from the base of her chin, falling directly to the ground and shattering against the hardened soil.

"_Usoda…_" she whispered amongst the weeps that came from her.

"Ryuuguu-san, I know it's difficult to face, but this _is_ the reality of what happened" Ooishi muttered, opening his eyes to the girl slowly bowing in front of her village, back curved as the weight of survival forced on her shoulders began to prove too much. "I apologize for misleading you initially".

"_Usoda!_" she cried, closing her eyes tightly, unable to look at the world she had ventured into. Her desire to travel back to the joyful times intensifying dramatically with each passing second.

"Ryuuguu-san, please-"

"_USODA!_"

A wail escaped the girl's throat as Ooishi stared in shock at her disbelief, yelling the same word that she had used in the past to intimidate those who had lied to her in the past in order to get the truth from them. This occasion was far different, rather than demanding the truth, she was hiding from it, wanting for lies to enter her ears. Anything to evade facing the reality that the world she had been promised was nothing more than a distant memory.

"B- but we promised. Keiichi-kun and I promised…" she sobbed, losing the ability to speak clearly through the despair that claimed her. "In that moment when he awoke me from my nightmare… shining the light in my eyes… he…"

_Standing opposite from each other, bathed in the light of the full moon behind the school structure, they broke apart, lowering their respective weapons, discussing their wagers in the battle. Having just caught her off-guard, Keiichi stared into Rena's blank, dull eyes, despite the moon's light, the curse lurking within her heart continued to shadow over the true Ryuuguu Rena, his own eyes burning brightly with the desire to win, to protect her, clutching Satoshi's bat in his hands, holding it before his legs, her hatchet facing it at her side. He stared at her, watching her expression, accepting that she could win, that had been his chance to leap back, giving them this moment of peace. The children below staring up in awe and suspense, Ooishi among the crowd, staring in the same manner, seeing the two battling, after everything else that had happened; this was the final stage._

"_If you win, Rena… I'll believe in your story. I'll believe that aliens are controlling the world" he promised calmly, his eyes lowering to her neck, the bandages clinging to the red sore skin, preventing anymore blood from escaping the wounds from her own nails. "Even if you claw your throat out and die, I'll see it through to the end, no matter what"._

"_You know what? Even if I win, that's so boring" Rena answered, her eyes beneath the shadow of her fringe, the moon shining down upon them, her hair in the right position to hide her large once-glorious eyes._

"_What now? You want to change it?" Keiichi inquired bluntly._

_Rena lifted her head again, her fringe back out of her way, smiling cheerfully, her eyes closed yet the happiness shining through nonetheless. She stood tall, proud, she had no desire to kill as she had when the battle began._

"_I- I would like… the same prize you'll get, Keiichi-kun" she requested brightly._

"_You want me to be a maid?!" Keiichi yelled, shuddering at the thought of losing another bet with such a wager._

"_No, you don't have to be a maid" Rena answered, tilting her head back faintly. "But the rest is the same. I want you to greet me everyday with 'Good Morning' and to hear you tell me 'Good Night' in the evening. I'd like you to fill me with lots of kindness… to fill me with lots of joy"._

_Keiichi smiled, seeing her eyes finally open, the same light of the moon in his own now reflected in hers once again, the desire to be together, to win playfully rather than with their lives on the line had returned. It was the real Rena standing before him again. _

"_Huh? With these stakes, even if I win or you win…" she continued. "We'll… always be together…"_

"_We'll be together, but there'll be a difference in treatment" Keiichi stated merrily, flashing a thumbs-up as he did, his sign of approval._

_Rena giggled, that was the Keiichi before her that she trusted; she had roused from that nightmare. She had tormented Keiichi with his past, injured both Mion and Rika; almost killed all of her friends and classmates. But through it all, he had believed in her, he was still ready to continue their battle with a bright soul. To him, it was nothing more than a game, much like those they would play with their friends. Those serious games, it was like a playful war… that was the Maebara Keiichi she… loved…_

But where was he? He had been snatched from her.

The promise they made had been broken before it could even begin.

Just those few days before that fight, she had caused so much damage, reducing him to tears in rejecting his pleas for help because of the pain he had caused others in the past. The closest person in the world to her, and she had mistreated him. There was only the brief spell of time following the fight, the following day before Ooishi arrived and escorted her to the facility where she would get the help they believed necessary for her to overcome the traumas she had suffered, all of the unresolved conflicts. What felt like a lifetime of bad memories could only be tackled by a day of pure enjoyment with her friends. Together they had bee there, he had even comforted her when she was called to leave Hinamizawa.

Beyond that night without her… he had no memories.

"Keiichi-kun… w- was this… what you were trying to prevent?" she whispered, her grip on the diamond lined metallic strips tightening once again. All she could do was pass the fingers that had caused so much agony through the barrier, into Hinamizawa, nails pressing down harshly against her skin, threatening to pierce the upper layer of her palm. "Were you trying to protect me… no, _Hinamizawa_ from this? Takano-san's scrapbooks of this were what drove me to that madness. Succumbing to Oyashiro-sama's curse again. I didn't listen to anyone, but you saw that something bad was going to happen and you wanted it to stop".

From behind, both Jouichirou and Ooishi watched in silence, forgotten by the mourning girl who continued to fall apart before them, dressed in the school uniform she wore every morning as she accompanied her friends as a classmate, planning to joke about joining them in school immediately, that she couldn't wait to return to that place. It was that moment when the symbols imprinted on the paper dangling close to Rena caught Jouichirou's eye.

_**Danger!**  
Toxic volcanic gases  
Outbreak Area  
Keep Out_

The entire area inside had been contaminated - the swamp that possessed a deadly myth about it regarding demons living beneath its murky surface had come back to claim the lives of every person living in Hinamizawa that night. Perhaps not in the way of demons clambering out and slaughtering the humans who had been capable of settling and living perfectly happy lives, but by some other deadly means.

"Keiichi-kun" Rena whispered. Tears rolled down her cheeks just as they had that night when they were on their knees atop the school, the aftermath of the fight that had downgraded into nothing more than a fun standoff. A time she could treasure as she found herself there with him, feeling his arms around her as he spoke of how talking to their friends would help cure them of the madness that plagued their vulnerable moments.

The sky was still blue, the clouds still floating lightly, the gentle breeze ruffling the bushes and leaves in the trees, the cicadas crying. It was still just like that day; life continued all around the village whereas her friends and neighbours had all perished unjustly. Her entire body trembling, her legs shuddering harder than her upper-half, bending marginally. She was breaking down, unable to cope with the truth, just as she hadn't been able to fight the voice inside of her that persisted with the belief that aliens were going to invade Hinamizawa and replace everyone with copies.

Ooishi and Jouichirou watched silently, neither sure what to do, what to say, seeing it to be wise to let Rena cry first, keeping everything inside would only make things worse afterwards; history had been testament to that. Jouichirou stepped forward, raising a hand, but before he could advance further, Ooishi's hand dropped on his shoulder. The boy looked back at the aged man who shook his head slowly - Hinamizawa was Rena's home, the memories of the village were hers. She would say goodbye on her own - a final farewell to everything she knew and cared about before the future ahead of her would open. Rena cried out again, wails deteriorating almost into scream, her voice echoing in the air above alongside the cry of the cicadas.

* * *

_Those voices of your past, they echo in your heart. The heart that is shattering. Don't let the memories fade as your soul aches._

"_Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Reflection, Chapter 3 - Emptiness"._

* * *

When this ceased with updates, I always planned to come back and rewrite it. Now with the New Year, I've come to do that with it being inactive for approximately a year. The story itself will have the same flow as the original version, yet has much more depth to it and expands from where the original was going - dragging in characters and concepts from Onisarashi-hen and the Kizuna series. The previews are still based on _Why or_ _Why Not?_ as though it were the ending for each chapter, like it's an extension to the first season. Once all five pre-existing chapters have been rewritten, I'll focus on continuing it rather than leaving it behind while other projects take up time. These two redone chapters are the first updates of this year and certainly won't be the last with an additional project for Higurashi in the works for a short time now. Thanks for reading, please leave a review.

_- CuteYami, 18th January 2010._


	3. Emptiness

**Higurashi no Naku Koro ni - Reflection [Jukko-hen]**

_Continuation from Tsumihoroboshi-hen. "Everyone has been claimed by the fateful June and I stand the lone survivor. Clouds pass over the sun, abandoning the village of Hinamizawa; my home - reclaimed by demons"._

* * *

The sky had been cloaked in a veil of grey clouds, much darker than when she had parted from Keiichi, both dragging their bikes by their sides. The bike now rested near the edge of the dump in the hiding place Rena had constructed for such occasions when she would skip returning home and head straight for her secret base. The wind grew cold and hinted further that rain was coming to Hinamizawa.

Rena clambered over the heap constructed to the camper van's left side, dressed still in her white dress ensemble. She dug the heels of her tall, laced brown boots into dips between items of trash, her tactic to prevent falling. Once she reached the bottom, she moved to the front of the abandoned vehicle, gazing inside before pulling up the window and slipping inside, dragging the handle down after her.

Inside was her second home, cups and dolls were stacked on a wooden chest, plushies smiling from the shelf that had been put up. They went unnoticed as Rena moved to the side furthest from the mound she had climbed down and ignited the lantern kept for such dark days. Her eyes moved up and to the star chart taped to the ceiling. It was wonderful how the stars could make animals from so far away, alone in their own space, but united as they linked up despite the distances between them.

Pattering could be heard as she gazed into the space far beyond her wildest dreams, drawing her back to Earth and outside where the rain had inevitably started falling heavily. The rain was refreshing after a warm summer's day, but it was saddening at the same time. It made her think of old times, when it had just been her father and herself - that was how she liked it, even before she returned to Hinamizawa. Her mother had decided to leave the village despite the girl's protests, wanting to clutch onto her naïve hope that her parents could get back together. Her father, however, remained loyal to her wishes. But even then, times in his company felt unsatisfactory in comparison to those with her mother.

* * *

**「ひぐらしのなく頃に」**

**熟考編**

**Chapter 3 - Emptiness**

Jouichirou sighed heavily; feeling powerlessness weighed on his heart, like a lead weight tying him down to the rocks. The light hanging from above, fixed into the centre of the white ceiling lit the evening darkness; the picturesque day deteriorating into a flood of despair; grey clouds charging across the sky and spilling tears of pity onto the Okinomiya. Ooishi had offered the duo a shelter in the form of his home; improper, but falling on his shoulders as a sense of duty. He had taken Rena from Hinamizawa shortly before the disaster that stripped her life of history, he had been the one charged with confessing the news long ago, he was the one that ruined her life just as she was returning to a stable frame of mind. The boy dragged up his white-socked feet from the floor, tucking them onto the cushion and wrapping his arms around the knees delicately, holding himself in a fleshy sphere of sorrow and regret.

In front of him, the glass-top coffee table glimmered like a reversed sun, the top of his unkempt hair mirrored in the clear face. Moping in the former-officer's home felt wrong, but there was little else he could do; Ooishi insisted on keeping him with Rena, the two had bonded well. To rip him away from her just as they returned to true life would simply kill her. There was another armchair nearby, identical to the one that embrace him with its hollow comfort, a sofa pressed against the wall to his right, opposite the French doors that led onto a small balcony, tears seeping down from the spray of misery

From behind, a click and subtle thud, Ooishi had emerged from the darkness. Jouichirou glanced over his shoulder at the aged man waltzing towards him grimly; Rena had taken the news of Hinamizawa badly, shrunken into a silent and frozen wreck. Offers to return to the hospital were given by the guardian, but nothing came of them, nor of the helpline numbers he had given her should she feel like talking any time soon. His wrinkled head was bowed solemnly, guiltily, while he paced away from the shaded room he had emerged from, sulkily retreating to the living room where the stronger of the fractured souls waited in vain for hope. He waited until Ooishi moved beyond him and towards the neglected sofa, snatching the tobacco packet and cigarette papers from the coffee table before he positioned himself and fell into the meaningless softness.

"How is Rena?" Jouichirou asked tonelessly, hopelessly.

Ooishi dabbed the edge of the paper with the tip of his tongue, rolled the cigarette up and slipped the end into his mouth before he responded with a simple shake of the head; no improvement, lost in despair. It all meant Rena was beyond reach. Seeing the gesture, Jouichirou's heart sank; Ooishi had not even the heart to confess in words that there was nothing they could do for her, but wait it out. She hadn't touched the food that Ooishi brought over the course of the day, the water in the glass jug on the windowsill sank slowly.

A flicker of light came from the senior man, a small flame that scorched the edge of the paper and tobacco, burning away at the small creation. A puff of grey breath fled from the man's mouth in the form of a sigh, dissipating into the air until its field was too far stretched to exist any further and simply vanished.

"Ooishi-san".

Moving his eyes back to the boy, Ooishi was removed from his world of tired thoughts and complaints, wishing that he could reverse time a year, long enough to prevent the disaster, or at least console Rena in a different way.

"What's going to happen now?" the younger one asked.

With a heavy breath, Ooishi peeled his eyes away and moved them to the splattered doors opposite, the lights of opposite dwellings glowing in the storm like candle lights along a river of remembrance.

"I don't know" he confessed. "It's not possible for Ryuuguu-san to be left on her own; she can't live until she's grieved. There's nothing we can do to help her until she finds herself and releases those she lost; it's not easy, but I believe she is strong enough to achieve freedom and peace in time. Hinamizawa was a close community; the thought of her friends' demise will haunt her both throughout the day and in her dreams for a while. Something like that, such a large-scale loss…"

"Ooishi-san…" Jouichirou whispered solemnly. He couldn't comprehend losing everyone he cared for; his parents were buried and sleeping together, but he had others to exist for. Rena had no-one. Everyone she cared for were in a mass grave together somewhere, all gone without so much as a chance to say goodbye. She had been denied the last precious moments with the earthly bodies of her former life, blissfully ignorant of the truth she would have to face eventually. His head tucked itself between hunched shoulders. "I just wish…"

* * *

Down the hallway, the door to the room Rena hid away in remained untouched, the girl herself rested against the wall beside the window, on the opposite end from the only way in or out. The curtains were drawn, the only exception coming in the form of a narrow strip exposed to the sight of the drowning city; she paid no attention to the torrential downpour, however, and sat motionless, much like a damaged statue that could do nothing to repair itself. The light from the morning was gone; the light of hope and joy, of a future that was planned out so precisely to avoid losing her way once more. What had happened to the perfect day that would open into an ideal future?

All drowned in blood. The blood of the people she had left behind.

A belated exhalation of air left her mouth; her eyes still remained in the safety of the still and quiet room, undisturbed by reality. It would act as a prison while she locked herself away from the living world. The eyes remained dark, almost blank much like the times she had had been running about Hinamizawa with her hand in hand, plotting the scheme that would open the eyes of all non-believers to what the aliens had been plotting… all until the truth exposed was that there was nothing but paranoid delusions haunting her. In the corner of the room, the suitcase with all the possessions she had taken from Hinamizawa when leaving all those months ago sat open; all the possessions she had left in the world, the rest cut off in the quarantine zone. Those months ago… so much time had passed since last seeing the smiling faces of her friends. To breath the same summer air as them and laugh; play their club games and fawn over the punishment games they, particularly Keiichi, would be forced to endure. So much time had passed since the innocent children and everyone around them lost their lives to fate.

Her dried eyes began to dampen once more, the socket edges soaked in tears ready to slide free and escape in the episode of despair. Just like those that had returned to Hinamizawa soil upon learning the truth that had been hiding behind Ooishi; the ruins of the village as a result of the 'Great Disaster'. Since the time she had been dragged from the fence, she had been unable to cry, her face dried and the trails of those tears gradually evaporated. Despair, h however, took on its new form and reduced her to a catatonic shell; recovering was going to take much longer than the simple drying of tears.

* * *

_Bringing her head down from the view of the heavens, Rena tucked it between her shuddering shoulders, eyes fallen to the ground once more, tears gushing like rivers down her cheeks, falling through the invisible waterfalls before crashing against the hardened soil beneath. It was like a young child trying to revive a dead flower by watering it, acting far too late to rescue the plant from its untimely dehydration. Only small stains remained of the tears for a brief time, quickly swallowed by the unforgiving land and vanished without a trace. All signs of regret and grief were erased mercilessly._

_Rena relieved her throat of another sob, shaking her head quickly, throwing the tips of her hair around, including into the damn trails, snagging the strands and pinning them to her face. It couldn't be, what had they died? Why had this wretched fate befallen them in such a cruel and ritualistic way? Of all times, they had perished mere days after she left, around the time of Oyashiro-sama's demands for two victims. They were going to be there for her, they had promised to wait for her._

_Her grip on the fence weakened and fingers withdrew from the inside, palms running against the rusting chain fence, her legs were bending/ She seemed to leave the world for a moment, her cries all but diminished, leaving in their wake slight gasps for breath; the only sign that she had reacted in the manner she had. When her knees hit the ground, she did nothing; her eyes remained wide, staring in disbelief to the rising ground, like it was finally hitting her; the full impact of the truth. The truth that she would never see Keiichi again, never see Rika again nor Mion, Shion and Satoko._

"_Rena?"_

_The voice that broke through the chain of memories was Jouichirou's; an outsider, someone who had no understanding of the ways in Hinamizawa, ignorant of the tales of Oyashiro-sama's tale and the string of deaths underneath the name._

_Regardless of the voice reaching her, Rena didn't openly react; she chose to remain still as though she had become detached from the world, clenching her fists pressed against the gravel underneath her. It was that moment that Ooishi stepped forward, asserting the fact that he remained at the scene._

"_Ryuuguu-san, we should leave" he sighed heavy-heartedly. "Perhaps the two of you could stay at my place for a while; it's the least I can do. I doubt you wish to return to your mother, but I can use the Okinomiya police force to find somewhere appropriate for you to stay if you wish"._

"_No!" Rena cried sharply, squeezing her eyes shut tightly, the body flinched with the brutal response. "You can't take me away from here; I belong here, in Hinamizawa! I have to stay as close as I can, otherwise Oyashiro-sama will be disappointed in Rena. I- I promised that I would stay this time… There's nowhere else for me; al my friends… my father…"_

_The distraught survivor's words deteriorated into fits of sobs and rapid breaths, her paled hands retreated, pressing down against her temples. The shrunken form fitted and shivered, overwhelmed._

"_Rena…" Jouichirou muttered serenely, lowering his head remorsefully._

"_I lost everything. All that I have is what I took from Hinamizawa when I left for the hospital" Rena cried, tears flowing much thicker than whilst she had endured the recollection of the tragedy. "There's no-one around me like I was promised. Everything I had; it was there. Hinamizawa was my life… and now it's gone…"_

_Jouichirou felt his heart sank further, burying through the ground and further into the darkened depths that would lead to whatever lied beneath; he was unable to say anything to ease the redhead's pain, nothing to calm the breakdown. He could only stand with tears building in his eyes, forced to watch as despair enveloped Rena, reducing her to little more than a sobbing shell. Unable to smile, unable to experience happiness, unable… to live._

_She had taken the news of her previous life's death hard; as he could understand. It was taking him all back… back to the time when he was informed of his parents' death, having finally constructed his own path to recover following the crash. He'd cried for days, there was no other family for him; he was alone. Just like the broken girl…_

* * *

Since those moments, when the tears finally ceased and the wails of despair calmed into silence; Rena had been unable to speak or express emotion; left like a shell, silently mourning the loss of everything she knew. Her reality. No more tears, no more sobs nothing left her mouth, which dried from the lack of movement or attention. Jouichirou had loosely wrapped his arms around her, guiding her gently from the ground, as if her body had become as fragile as her mind and emotions, and escorted her back to the car.

Instead of the bubbling, bright girl that had been sliding her head through the window and into the winds, waiting to be returned to her home, Rena was little more than a doll seated against the seat; the belt pinning her down and her head tilted downwards, eyes hovering somewhere about the floor. None of the spectacles interested her nor caught her eye. Beauty had been sapped from the bitter world left in the wake of the precious days she had been promised; snatched away at the cruellest of times. The cheerful girl had died at the edge of Hinamizawa; waiting on the other side of the fence to her friends.

It tore at Jouichirou's heart to consider Rena's position, more so to witness the girl on both sides of the crushing reveal; imagining as Rena reached through the chain-link fence, trying desperately to reunite with her joyful friends, playful lively without a care in the world while she remained locked out, tears gushing down her face, calling out to them, words halted at the barrier. Eternally tormented. The young dark-haired man lifted his eyes from the ashtray, where Ooishi pressed the tattered remains of his cigarette against the glass, and upwards to the man's wrinkled face, the sagged eyes remaining downcast.

"Ooishi-san" he said firmly. "Rena is in a state of shock, there must be something we can do for her".

"Just give her time; that's the only choice we have" Ooishi sighed grimly, slipping the cigarette between his lips and inhaling the substances within.

"But you and Rena spoke of something before; something about an illness, a curse" Jouichirou continued, leaning forward. "I want to know more about it; the Hinamizawa Syndrome, the curse of Oyashiro-sama".

Ooishi removed the cigarette, clearing his throat with a grunt quickly afterwards. "I don't think that's such a good idea" he mumbled. "It's not really something that should be spread like gossip".

"Please, Ooishi-san" Jouichirou insisted. "I have to know all the facts if I'm to help Rena".

The retired officer exhaled deeply, aware that any attempt he would make to redirect the boy's attention from the fabled condition would ultimately fail He slid the cigarette into a small groove made in the rounded edge of the ashtray and stretched his neck, falling back into a slouch between the wide arms of the seat.

"Alright, but I'd appreciate you keep the details to yourself" he said. "The truth is… I never believed in the curse, nor in that Shrine God. It appears as though science prefers the ideal that the Hinamizawa Syndrome is a condition that affects all in the village, whereas the people and their religious ways prefer the theory that it's a punishment from their god, who causes suffering and eventual death to those who disobey His laws, such as deserting the village".

"That's why Rena was so insistent on staying at Hinamizawa" Jouichirou interjected, raising his eyebrows. "She said that Oyashiro-sama would be 'disappointed' if she left; she was just trying to protect herself from becoming a victim again. After all, who else does that thing have to haunt?"

"Apparently, many elders whose families moved away from the village also began to act peculiarly following the news" Ooishi added with a slow nod. "The truth is, regardless of what alternative explanation is compiled for the condition, the people were afraid to lose their faith; which was when the curse began to affect life in the village".

"What do you mean?" Jouichirou questioned, lifting his head in curiosity. "How could a mere fable change the everyday life of an entire village?"

"They were religious people" Ooishi grunted. "If was all sparked by that accursed Dam War; on the night of the Watanagashi Festival, held towards the end of June, one of the figures in charge of the dam project was brutally murdered; his body divided into six separate parts: head, torso, arms and legs. After that… a similar sequence would happen every year".

"Someone would die on the night of the Watanagashi?" Jouichirou assumed.

"Not just that. Someone else would go missing, and the pattern suggests someone close to the deceased" Ooishi elaborated ."The villagers claim those people were 'demoned away' as a sacrifice; something along those lines. As last year's festival approached, Ryuuguu-san contacted me, claiming she had happened upon another theory".

"Another?" Jouichirou echoed, raising his eyebrows.

"A nurse at the medical centre handed Ryuuguu-san a notebook filled with elements of an alternative explanation for the strange behaviour, possibly even those who vanished. That book claimed to Ryuuguu-san that aliens were preparing to invade the world; that they would abduct individuals and replace them with copies" Ooishi continued, casting his eyes towards the rain-splattered glass doors. "According toe Maebara Keiichi, the night before the hostage situation, Ryuuguu-san claimed she too 'was a copy. She'd been through a stressful time and it was all becoming too much for her. Takano giving her those scrapbooks was a fatal move; Ryuuguu-san wasn't in a condition to handle peeping into the depths of another theory. However…ironically, it was that very factor that spared her her life".

"Because if she had never learned of that idea, she would have remained in Hinamizawa without trying to take her own course of action and perished with everyone else" Jouichirou finished. His head dipped afterwards, his eyes sliding downwards. "But… it looks as though that's the way she would have wanted things. Being alone is this world is a terrible thing; I don't think she will ever be able to cope with that kind of life".

"I've no choice but to agree after the display that she put on at Hinamizawa's ruins" Ooishi sighed. "The truth is… Ryuuguu-san once suffered the Hinamizawa Syndrome herself following the divorce of her parents. The same appeared to have happened once she learned of conspiracy theories; including this alien thread. Both times she feared that death was right behind her, watching over her shoulder for signs that Oyashiro-sama was ready to strike. The world, however, continued as normal, as though nothing had happened; it pushed her to her limits, ignoring her plight, much like what is happening now".

"What are you saying?" Jouichirou asked anxiously.

"I'm saying we should take care of her and keep watch; we have to ensure the strain doesn't become too much and risk her relapsing" Ooishi stated. "Having said that, I don't believe that if that should happen, she would escalate too high so suddenly; I heard from Doctor Irie at the medical centre that it's possible for residents to remain at a certain stage; he estimated tat Houjou Satoko was permanently fixed at around Level 3 and remained that way".

"So you believe that Rena may also stay in that kind of scenario?" Jouichirou inquired; the history and tales intrigued him, prompting his curiosity to learn more.

"It's not outside the realm of the possible" Ooishi mumbled. "All I can be sure of is that Ryuuguu-san may never be the same as before. I'll do what I can to restore the old Ryuuguu-san, there is a chance that time will heal. She recovered once outside that village; perhaps she can do so once more. Ill help er in whatever way I can to bring back the Ryuuguu Rena you witnessed on your journey here. The _real_ Rena".

'_Rena…'_ Jouichirou thought, his eyes falling to the astray whilst silently pondering over the elderly man's promise. _'Was that our past? Stalked by the sounds of death? Fearing those footsteps and when they could catch up with you? I won't let you suffer anymore; like Ooishi-san, I'll do whatever it takes to restore the real you. I want to see you smile at me the way you smiled at Maebara Keiichi. To see your real smile, hear that innocent laugh; see the light in your eyes shining as bright as the sun. Wait for me, Rena, you won't need to suffer ever again; let alone being doing so by yourself. You'll be filled with happy memories of both lives. Just… don't slip away from me I'll promise a bright future, can you promise me you won't sink into despair beyond reach?'_'

Over his shoulder, the young man glanced once more, curious as to what the broken girl was doing; was she still in the same withdrawn position with her head bowed and eyes half-closed? What was going through her mind? Despite what he had heard of Rena's maddened episodes, throughout it all, he knew there was an innocent girl; the real Rena he had seen. The hours of silence, they were simply another form of those episodes; a scheme to avoid madness seeing in and clouding her perception of reality.

She would remain strong, just as he had before; she had a friend by her side. That should be enough to keep her from descending into darkness. Keiichi may not have been able to physically stay by her side, but he would no doubt be there in spirit. Instead, the will left behind by the deceased brunette would be picked up by another; without even meeting or knowing his face, Jouichirou had picked up Maebara Keiichi's will; he would watch over Rena and guide her back to life.

"I'll protect you" he whispered, barely louder than the breath released. "I'll continue what Keiichi started; I'll protect you, Rena…"

* * *

_The voices of your past stand behind you. The voice of your future stands behind you, reaching out. Your heart wants to take that hand, but your hand won't rise._

_Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Reflection, Chapter 4 - "Whispers"._


	4. Whispers

**Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Reflection**

_Following the events of Tsumihoroboshi-hen; Rena returns to Hinamizawa, learning the horrific fate of the village. Broken and alone, she continues where no-one else in Hinamizawa had the chance. A chance to live beyond the fateful June._

* * *

**Chapter 4-Whispers**

"_Rena!"_

The red haired girl lifted her eyes, setting them upon the boy before her, smiling gently, comfortingly. She didn't return the look; her own expression was one of disorientation.

"Come on, Rena" Keiichi called, extending his hand out to her.

"Keiichi…kun?" Rena murmured, staring in disbelief at his presence before her.

"You don't want to be left behind, do you, Rena?" Keiichi laughed light-heartedly. He didn't have a care in the world, had she returned to the carefree days of live in Hinamizawa?

"Left behind?" Rena asked hastily, her eyes widening while they filled with tears again.

"Rena? What's the matter?" Keiichi asked, lowering his hand to his side. The smile had vanished.

"Keiichi-kun. I was left behind, wasn't I?" Rena asked; her anguish filled her voice, sharp intakes to avoid breaking down before him.

"Left behind?" Keiichi echoed. "I wouldn't leave you behind Rena. Never".

"But…you died in the Great Disaster. What happened? Are we back in Hinamizawa?" Rena inquired, pushing herself forward, the wall behind her losing its use as a support.

"Of course. Look around, it's the classroom" Keiichi called, spreading his arms out to the empty classroom around them. "Did you fall asleep?"

"Where are the others?" Rena called, turning to Keiichi's face again.

"They went home. I said I'd stay here until you woke up" Keiichi answered, descending down onto one knee before her.

"Keiichi…it was all a dream, wasn't it?" Rena asked meekly.

"Yeah. Everything was a dream from the time things started to get bad" Keiichi answered with a nod.

"'From the time things started to get bad'? How do you know what happened?" Rena called, her brow creasing suspiciously.

"Rena, I'm here for you. Don't worry. I'll _always_ be waiting here for you" Keiichi muttered, his eyes had narrowed to the same as that night, the night of their fight.

He shuffled forward; it was like everything was replaying itself before her, inside the school. His arms wrapped themselves around her, he was warm. Rena's eyes widened slightly, this couldn't be a dream, an illusion; he was telling the truth. Her eyelids gradually fell shut and for the first time since the sights she had seen had taken that sinister turn, she smiled.

"Keiichi-kun. I was afraid that we had been separated. Not just you, but everyone" she whispered, glad to be in his embrace once again. "I never want to have a dream like that again. I was scared, I was alone; everyone I cared for was gone. I was with Ooishi and a boy I befriended in the hospital, I could see you in him".

"It's alright, Rena. I'm here, I'll always be here" Keiichi muttered softly, rubbing her head with right hand, all he could do was comfort her, erasing those thoughts was impossible. They were like scars, she would wear them forever.

"Keiichi. Promise me you'll never leave me".

"I promise".

Rena's smile grew, tears of pure joy built in her eyes; she pressed herself against Keiichi. Even if the moment would end, she wanted to drag it out as long as possible and she was well aware that Keiichi wouldn't mind the embrace lasting longer. She felt his hand rest on top of her red hair, stroking her head.

"Rena?"

"Hm?" Rena sounded, looking up at him.

Keiichi's face looked frozen, he hadn't said anything but his voice had still reached her ears; she blinked at him, mystified.

"Keiichi-kun?" she muttered, her expression full of childish puzzlement.

"_Rena…"_

There it was again; Keiichi's voice, but he hadn't moved his jaws. She rose a single eyebrow just waiting for him to say something from his own mouth. Who else could be speaking in his place with his voice? Her eyes slowly fell shut, reaching forward for his chest, just to rest her head and confirm her reality. Slowly inching and nothing came to her head; she opened her eyes again, staring ahead.

Shadows, darkness, Keiichi had vanished. She lifted her gaze, finding Jou kneeling in front of her; _he_ had been the one beckoning her to return from her dream, to the reality outside of her world. She sighed, lowering her eyes again, falling to the floor in disappointment. Jou frowned recognizing the discontent in her expression; after a moment of deliberation, a hand rose from beside his knee, holding it out before her, smiling consolingly. Rena stared blankly at him, something about him sitting there; reaching for her reminded her of something. _Someone_. A blurred image in her mind placed itself in his place, her mind had been ruptured since the truth of her hopes and wishes had been realized; even some of her memories, happier memories, had slowly faded into blurs or completely from her mind. Only those that continued to prey on her mind continued to exist without any problem; her time in Hinamizawa at a young age, leaving the village, the argument with her mother, returning to the village, the time before Keiichi, experiencing everyday with her friends without concern, her descent back into madness, upon the roof of the school. Everything vital, a few exceptions, the moment being one of them.

She glanced back up at Jou; instead Keiichi was in his place. _That was it!_ It had been Keiichi reaching for her after she had murdered Rina and Teppei. He had reached his hand out for her to grasp and continue without fear lurking over her about the deaths; they had all held their hands out: Mion, Satoko, Rika. And even after she had grasped those hands, she had slipped in her worry that Mion had moved the bodies to expose her. Why had she doubted her friends? Was she going to doubt Ooishi and Jou? Were they trying to take the place of her friends in comforting her?

"Rena" Jou repeated anxiously.

The hallucinations of the past had faded; Jou knelt alone before her, his smile faded. Rena's expression hadn't changed from the dazed, vacuous look she had worn since before he had entered; her eyes void of vivacity.

"Jou-kun?" she muttered gently.

Accompanying the tone of her voice to the expression she held onto, Jou could only see a young girl, abandoned by fate and torn from everyone she loved. She couldn't be herself anymore; she was scared, unaccompanied in the world, unable to even cry anymore. He knew it all too well. Where she sat, was a memory of himself after the death of his parents.

"Rena, I've been through what you feel. I can help you" he muttered, stretching his hand towards her.

"You…have?" Rena sounded hesitantly.

"I have. Remember what I told you when we met? I lost both of my parents, those that I cared for most in my life" Jou recalled, suppressing his own urge to lament for his parents once again in the face of Rena's own grief. "I want to be able to you overcome your grief. I never recuperated completely from being left alone in this world and I'm sure you won't. But we can be there for each other".

"How can you speak about their passing without crying? Without mourning?" Rena muttered curiously.

"I want to. I really do. Every day I think about them and cry. I cry until I can't shed anymore tears. I regret what they went through, that I could survive" Jou answered, hanging his head slightly, the want to grieve continued to grow, eating away at him. "Every time I see their faces, I want to. Every time I hear their voices. But I know they wouldn't want me to spend the rest of my life that I was given by them crying and feeling sorry, looking back at the past. I know that they would want me to look ahead at the opportunities that they gave me, the dreams they wanted me to fulfil. I feel that when my time comes, they'll come back for me and take me with them, but when they decide the time comes for us to reunite. I'm sure your friends are watching you from where they stand after their passing, waiting to take your hand and embrace you into the other side of existence".

"Other side?"

"Mhm. Life and Death. They're waiting. My parents are waiting. A barrier will stand between us in which we can't touch, but we know they're there. When we die, that barrier will fall and we can cross over. But that barrier, that is _their_ will for us to live. We can't knock it down so easily. If we did, maybe they wouldn't forgive us for doing so".

"It's like…what Keiichi did for me that night" Rena mumbled, her head slowly rising up. "When I succumbed to the Fifth Level of the Hinamizawa Syndrome, I was supposed to scratch at my neck, trying to claw my throat out. But as we fought, after we fought, that possibility was still there. He told me 'Even if you claw your throat out and die, I'll see it through to the end, no matter what'. He was placing a barrier to protect me, that's when I realized that the truth wasn't what mattered; it was him; our friends. I didn't want everything to be about the truth, I wanted to enjoy the time I had with him. So I changed the wager; to his. That he would be like a maid. Like he wished for me to be".

"Rena…That's when you woke up, isn't it?" Jou asked cautiously, unsure whether she was responding to his belief or merely thinking aloud.

"It was" Rena answered, nodding. "After everything, I felt so guilty. I had hurt Rika-chan, I hurt Mi-chan. Keiichi said it was a good start. What good start resulted in him and everyone else dying?"

"He couldn't see that though" Jou replied, tilting his head slightly.

"I know what he meant. Even without himself knowing, he was wishing me luck for the future" Rena continued as if Jou hadn't spoken. "He said there was a start in telling Mi-chan and Shi-chan apart. But after they all died, it was a new start for me. Not a good start, but he would watch over me. He was wishing everyone luck in the future and their luck ran out. They gave their wishes to me when the Great Disaster took away their own. That's how we met. Through their wishes that I wouldn't be alone again like I had been before".

"Their…wishes" Jou repeated over his breath.

"After your parents passed away, you were left alone. After Hinamizawa's passing, I was left alone as well. Keiichi could see that and he wished for us to meet. You're so alike, maybe that's why we were guided together before he could see and wish. He could see himself in you and recognized you as the one to help me, _because_ you were so alike" Rena muttered, staring towards the ground again.

She was murmuring like no-one else was present, like even she didn't understand what she was saying, Jou stared at her certain that a lack of knowledge was far from the truth, she had experienced loss before, madness before, she had seen Oyashiro. She may have had an imagination he could only dream of, but she couldn't have been making up her words instantly while they sat together.

"Jou-kun…you won't try to replace Keiichi-kun, will you?" Rena inquired, breaking the momentary silence.

"Huh?" Jou asked, raising his eyes to meet with her downcast eyes.

"You won't try to stand in his place, will you?" Rena repeated, rephrasing the question.

'_How did she know? A few minutes before I came by I said that I would stand in for Keiichi to protect her? Is this what she meant when she spoke of the night she tried to drive Keiichi mad with his memories? That she understood more than he expected'_ Jou silently debated. _'How would she know my very words though? Not even Ooishi heard me and he was much closer. What is it about her that repeated those words before I could even say them to her?'_

"Jou-kun?"

"Rena, I wouldn't stand in Keiichi's place. All I would do is continue that wish you said he passed to me: to stay by your side, to help you, to protect you. That's what you said his wish was and that is the wish I will continue".

"Protect me?" Rena repeated her eyes left the ground, meeting with Jou's face. "He told you to protect me?"

"Told? Well…I've never heard his voice nor seen his face so he couldn't have _told_ me-" Jou answered anxiously.

Jou found himself falling back before he could utter another word, slamming against the floor beneath him. He stared over his chest to where Rena sat, a hand stretched out, she had pushed him away. She didn't show any remorse, in her eyes remained the blank stare, watching as if she didn't know what she was doing, like she _wasn't_ doing anything. She pushed herself to her feet, leaving the strip of sunlight to fall upon the ground inevitably. Jou's eyes raced along her path, the hatchet laid on her bed without restraint.

"Rena!" he called, leaping to his feet and diving ahead of her. His fingers wrapped themselves around the handle of the weapon, turning to her without releasing it, keeping it pinned to the futon. "What are you planning? I won't let you use this to drive away what you don't want".

"What are you saying? I wasn't planning on using it" Rena mumbled neutrally.

"Don't lie, I know you were" Jou protested. He didn't raise his voice, he couldn't; arguing would only make the situation worse. "If you don't want me to protect you, I won't. I'll just care for you".

"Keiichi-kun's wish" Rena muttered.

Jou nodded silently, realising the grip of the hatchet, leaving it against the futon peacefully, he stepped towards Rena; she made no movement. Halting in front of her, he reached his hand out.

"We could always explore Okinomiya if you'd rather. Feel the sun on us rather than let it slip through the glass of a window, you can't really feel it that way" he suggested, managing a meek smile.

Rena nodded silently, Jou's smile grew slowly. He gripped Rena's hand with his own, clutching it firmly, she didn't respond. Instead of focusing on her lack of enthusiasm, he retrieved a tissue from his pocket, holding it out to her.

"You might want to wipe your face of the tears that have fallen, you don't want to look too upset walking on the streets of the city" he added gently.

"Arigato" Rena muttered, taking the tissue from his hand and dabbing her eyes with it.

"I'll tell Ooishi. Do what you want to get ready if there's anything. I'll be back in a few minutes" Jou declared, releasing her hand which then hung limply by her side.

She watched without a smile when Jou made his way out of the room, closing the door once again. Shadows hung over the room once again; was he right? Were these the shadows that she had been living in since the truth had hit her choice? Holding her from the life that she had been given another chance to live? Whatever the reason was for her survival in the Great Disaster through her absence, she had a life to live; that was what her friends were waiting for her to do. To ignore the barrier they stood beyond and stand in the light of the only life she would be given by fate. This was her one life as Ryuuguu Rena and she couldn't waste it mourning. Despite the lives that each of her friends had been given being cut short, they had enjoyed those lives, there wouldn't be another Furude Rika the same, nor a Houjou Satoko, Sonozaki Shion, Sonozaki Mion, Maebara Keiichi. None of them.

"That was is, wasn't it?" she asked, staring at the narrow gap between the curtains, the thin strip of light laying at the edge of her left eye. "That wish wasn't just to meet Jou-kun. But to remind me that I can't spend forever plagued with fear and despair. Oyashiro-sama is done with me. Oyashiro-sama is done with everyone. Only those from Hinamizawa that lived outside the village and survived are those with ties to that god. Once we die out, if there are no more, then Oyashiro-sama dies also. But…why would He want to die when the point of the curse was to remind everyone that there was still a Shrine God?"

A moment of silence passed, not even Jou's excited announcing to Ooishi could be heard, it was expected to have. Rena's eyes widened with a gasp, maybe there was a truth that no-one in Hinamizawa had been aware of. One she may have begun to figure out.

"Oyashiro-sama's Curse…it didn't hit the village through the gas leak, because it had already struck Takano-san and Tomitake. So why punish everyone? Rika was killed a few hours before, but why allow that?" she debated. "Why allow the reincarnation to die and then punish everyone who believes in the words. The gas leak…maybe even the curse…it _wasn't_ Oyashiro-sama. And when I confronted Him…He was warning me to return for my sake as well as my friends'. Oyashiro-sama…_is innocent_".

She threw open the curtains, staring out at the clear sky, still no darkened clouds like she desired. It was the desire of everyone else to enjoy a pleasant day. Her eyes took in the light, slowly lifting the veil of despair she clung onto. She was still grieving internally; on the outside she pulled a front of her usual self, the girl well known by those around her as the girl who would throw herself at anything cute, declaring she wanted to take her or him or it home. A lively girl; a peaceful girl, a girl with a shadow behind her that she didn't let hang over her head.

After all, she had to step into the role she had shortly before the Great Disaster, she had to explore the incident just as she had Takano's scrapbooks. Okinomiya had started the answers and Hinamizawa finished them. This time, she would learn everything. There had been more going on than she could comprehend since leaving Hinamizawa, she couldn't let so many vital facts pass her by, for the sake of her friends. She would live her life and learn the truth, for their memories. It was the only desire still burning in her, the only thing keeping her from the hollow shell she had been since the realization of the Disaster.

* * *

Chapter written to: _"Taishoua"_ (Higurashi KAI ED 1) - anNina

_Those memories that stand in front of your eyes. The shadows standing over your shoulder. The light of the day greeting the life. Each path beckons your name._

_"Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Reflection, Chapter 5 - Morning"._


	5. Morning

**Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Reflection**

_Following the events of Tsumihoroboshi-hen; Rena returns to Hinamizawa, learning the horrific fate of the village. Broken and alone, she continues where no-one else in Hinamizawa had the chance. A chance to live beyond the fateful June._

* * *

**Chapter 5 - Morning**

Rena gazed at each of the buildings standing at each side of the road in awe. Never had she seen so much life in one street before, Hinamizawa had been well populated for a small village, but the towns much larger impressed her. She didn't smile externally; the thoughts of life outside Hinamizawa reminded her of her own days away from her birth village. And Keiichi's life before them. What she had said to him...she tore him apart, she never did get a chance to really apologize. She sighed, letting her own breath mix with the fresh air of a new beginning; Jou's head had turned away during her moment of doubt, focusing on the variety of shops and cafes on their right. Rena glanced back at him, seeing his lack of attention on her; it brought a smile to her. He reminded her of everyone she had lost, not just him; but Mion and Satoko too. And the words of wisdom he had spoken, it was like Rika was standing within him, talking back at her again.

"_This _Hinamizawa", what had she meant? Why was she tired of it? Of _them_? Rena's eyes dropped; perhaps she had just given up in trying to win Rena over to their side before the Watanagashi. But at the same time, she had said something similar to Keiichi, that the confrontation against her "wasn't the first time"; there had been another; a "last time". Rena's head was swimming trying to figure out what Rika had meant. She had spent many of the days in the hospital trying to figure it out, trying to mourn her loss of time and what she had done. She missed the days when someone could make up for their mistake, take it back, do something to apologize. She glanced at Jou who watched her, smiling gently; Rena mirrored the look at him. Together they had suffered, alone they had suffered; if time was a healer; then it had its work cut out for it with the two of them. Rena's eyes lifted towards the clear blue sky, few cotton clouds drifting separately, swimming in the sea of bright blue. For reasons unknown to herself; a blue sky alone was enough to lift her mood, such small and lone clouds also lifted her spirits; she envied the vast space, watching down over the entire world; seeing every move, every person, every event. It understood the entire planet, but individuals themselves couldn't learn everything, they could visit everywhere, but they didn't help someone to learn like living would. As for herself, she had seen very little of the world, it saddened her, but without Oyashiro continuing to glare down on the village, she would be free to move across where she wanted.

Jou's hand lowered, grabbing her own gently; her head whipped around to look back. He continued to smile at her. She slowly began to smile on her own, back at him, thanking him without words for reaching out to her. She gripped his hand back, she wouldn't make the same mistake of letting someone slip away and lose them completely. She could see her saviour standing in Jou, he had been there for her when she had returned to Hinamizawa, Ooishi could do little for her; only speak of that horrifying night and the sights he had witnessed.

"Do you want to go find somewhere to eat?" he asked discreetly.

"I'd like that" Rena answered with a nod. "Do you know a place called 'Angel Mort'?"

"I'm sure we can find it" Jou replied, quickening his advance through the street.

"It's a place I used to go with my friends, it hopes many fond memories" Rena added. "The last time I went there; both Keiichi and I had won the water gun-fight challenge. The penalty for the losers, we decided, was to work at Angel Mort for the afternoon, dressed in the uniforms. Keiichi-kun and I were standing in front of Rika-chan, she looked so cute".

Rena's smile widened at the memory of her friends in such adorable costumes, Keiichi and the other boys had thought so. Even when Irie joined in the excitement, it was all still merely fun and games; even chasing him who followed Satoko.

"Then Mi-chan looked so kawaii too" Rena giggled. "And then Satoko-chan was just as cute. I wanted to take them all home. I always took cute things I found home; if I couldn't take them there, I'd take them to the dump and store them in the caravan I found, it's filled with cute things. I wish I could show you".

"I'm sure it's the cutest place in the world" Jou chuckled.

Rena looked up with a smile; Jou didn't doubt her about anything. He couldn't; she returned the belief, they were all the other could see, nothing else remained for them in the world. The buildings standing shoulder-to-shoulder along the edges of the wide road continued to stand proudly without any sign they would fade away ahead; different colours, different purposes, different promotions. People continued to slip in and out of them without a care in the world, just wanting to see what they could find, curiosity and the love of retail exchange. Jou continued to look out for a cafe he wanted to take Rena to, not a simple restaurant filled with people ordering large plates of various meals, somewhere quiet, luxurious that he and Rena could sit and get to know each other better. He hoped the Angel Mort Rena had spoken of would fit his ideals.

Rena didn't seem to mind pacing down the edge of the path, close to the dipped road, she seemed to be enjoying herself strolling down the streets of the town she had visited in her previous life with her late friends. Jou's spirit sank when he thought about what Rena had said in her room, that she believed he was trying to replace Keiichi in her life. It had driven her mad so easily, he worried about that. Would it become a common practice for her to breakdown into that mad state? He prayed that wasn't the case; Rena was fragile, but from what he had learned, she was stronger than any other person he had known. To see her so damaged, it hurt him. They may not have been as close as he wanted to be, they hadn't know each other for too long, but he wanted to be there for her through her dark time and when she could walk back into the light. The light like the sun of a new day. His eyes lifted towards the sky, squinting more the higher they rose, the clear blue sky was the same he envisioned Rena walking towards in his mental interpretation of her struggle.

"Jou-kun, there it is" Rena's voice called, a chirpy tone he never imagined he would have heard after Rena's hopes had been dashed at Hinamizawa.

His eyes fell to her instantly, following her arm which extended to a large building in a space of its own, two halves of a brief staircase laid before it, one connected to the other via a large space without a step ahead, rather to the left. Jou smiled, it wasn't how he had hoped for the place to be, but Rena cared for it all the same. He followed her lead; her grip had strengthened around his hand, her pace quickening to a jog. His smile softened, a real smile; Rena clearly cared for the place, the memories it held. Together, they raced up the steps, the steps that Keiichi had told Rena he had met Shion, a smile plastered on her face. She wanted it all to be nothing more than a dream, to walk inside and find Rika, Satoko and Mion dressed in the various costumes they had, Keiichi grinning smugly at avoiding having to endure a punishment. The doors flew open before her, the place remained quiet, the waitresses strolling between customers and the kitchen. Rena's bright beaming shrank into a subtle smile. Jou gazed around, his eyes falling on the same sight, the place certainly seemed quiet enough, more so than he had imagined.

"Rena, is something the matter?" Jou asked, glancing back at Rena.

She didn't look at him, her eyes floated above the tears that had formed, reluctant to let them part and travel their own way. Just as she had been them. But her expression remained one far from sorrow or regret. She was still smiling. The memories of Rika standing before Keiichi and herself, of Satoko swearing revenge, of Mion glaring at them for their choice of punishment games. Even of Irie chasing Satoko, forcing Rena herself to hunt him down to reclaim what she had declared as her own. Fun times; times without care, if only she could live them for just one more day. If she could be granted one wish, that would be it. Nothing more.

"Rena?" Jou echoed, catching her attention.

"Hai?" Rena sounded; her throat tight from forcing down the form of a cry or a sigh at the loss of life the place had. Perhaps they had been in mourning for Shion; she _had _worked in the place before. The tears slipped down her cheeks, provoking her to wipe the damp trails from her face quickly. "I'm fine, really. I was just thinking about the last time I was here. That had to be the best day of my life. Until we separated and went home. Keiichi-kun and I had a wonderful talk about our lives before and in Hinamizawa. After we went our own ways, I stopped by the junk yard, watching the rain fall inside the camper van, thinking back to the days I had spoken of vaguely with Keiichi-kun. That was when my favourite day ended".

"I'll take you wherever you want. If you don't want to stop here, we could find somewhere else" Jou muttered in a sympathetic tone, his brow creased worriedly.

"No, I want to stay here" Rena answered with a combination of shaking her head and the same smile. "I want to talk about what we did and where. And I can learn more about you".

"There isn't really much to learn" Jou sighed. "I was normal until the crash killed my parents. I didn't have anything interesting like your club or your friends".

"But you had a life" Rena protested with a light giggle.

"Alright, alright. You win" Jou chuckled, raising his empty hand in surrender.

Rena led him towards the tables by the window, seating herself opposite him. When their hands broke apart, the warmth of Rena's hand remained fixed upon Jou's; it had been what she had given to him throughout the squeezing of both joy and pain. He picked up the menu, looking through it.

"Are you hungry?" he asked.

"Not enough for a full meal" Rena answered, pointing to a small display; shelves stacked behind a glass window. "There's a selection of cakes and treats over there, I'd rather just have one of them".

"I'll have one too. I'll get us a couple" Jou insisted, pushing himself towards the edge of the table and standing at the edge, briskly making his way towards the display. "Rena, which would you like?"

Rena blinked sharply, for the first time since exploring the city; her smile had faded into a neutral expression. Before the counter, she could see Rina. Ritsuko. That _bitch_. Standing there, watching her, smiling.

_"Hey, Rena-chan. Which would you like?" Rina asked, smiling gently at Rena._

_"What? Me? Are you sure? Are you sure? Hauu~" Rena cried happily, balling her fists at the base of her chin and hopping forward._

_"Choose whichever one you like" Rina insisted, her hand open directing towards the wide selection of cute cakes and pastries._

_"Uh...um...Ah, this one. Hauu~" Rena called, pointing to a small cake directly in front of her with a bright smile._

_"Then two short-cakes and one Petit-Trianon. To take away, okay?" Rina asked of the man standing over Rena, almost as if putting emphasize on the "omochikaeri" that appeared in her request._

"Rena" Jou called again, snapping Rena out of the memory.

"I'll just have a short-cake please, Jou-kun" she answered in the same semi-shout across the room.

Jou nodded, his smile faded when his face had moved out of Rena's sight, her softening expression and daydreaming had caught him off-guard, he began to wonder if Rena had really told him everything about her last visit to the restaurant. He stepped up to the counter, glancing up at the man standing at the side.

"I'd like two short-cakes please?" he requested, his hand diving into his wallet for the money.

"Yes, sir" the man answered, bowing slightly before he tuned to the back of the display, removing two of the minuscule cakes.

Jou glanced over his shoulder at Rena who sat, staring out of the window silently, likely to have drifted off into another daydream or memory. Jou sighed; it must have been difficult no matter what the place meant to her, her wounds hadn't healed. Maybe she had pushed herself too soon. When the man's voice broke through his train of thought, asking for the money Jou owed him, he gave him the coins, taking a plate in each hand, each holding the requested cakes. Jou smiled, he could take the first step in really treating Rena the way he wanted, for them to move on together. He returned to the table, laying Rena's plate before her first, catching her attention and drawing her back from the window. Her hands had come together atop the table, fingers slipping between the gaps between those of the opposite hand, clutching each other.

"Arigatou, Jou-kun" she chirped.

"Rena, are you sure you're alright?" Jou asked, seating himself opposite, laying his plate down at the same time. "You seemed to drift off while I was over there".

"I'm fine. Really" Rena answered brightly. "I was just remembering something else. The day I was here with the others, my dad's girlfriend appeared. She wanted to have a place to eat, but it was full here. So she wanted to take a cake home for him and asked me which one I wanted".

"Did you take the same?" Jou asked. Rena simply nodded. "Why don't you tell me about your dad's girlfriend? I'm sure she was nice if she wanted to buy you a cake like that".

Rena's eyes turned from the cake, falling towards the empty seat beside her, the meek smile that she had put up had faded, her expression had fallen to one of regret.

"I'd rather not..." she muttered sadly. "There was more to her than that one day. The next day was when I learned more about her than any other day she had spent with my father".

"Gomen. I didn't mean to touch upon a sensitive nerve" Jou replied regretfully, accompanying the apology with a sympathetic smirk.

"It's fine. You would have wanted to know about my family eventually" Rena sighed. "You already know that my mother and father divorced after we found Hinamizawa in ruins. She had a boyfriend, claimed she was pregnant and wanted to move further away. She was taking me from my dad and my home. I couldn't stand for it. It was all just a stage of the downwards spiral Oyashiro-sama created for me. One leading to self-destruction. If it weren't for my father taking me back..."

"Hey, hey. It's alright" Jou intervened, even without the emotion in Rena's words, clearly she was still distraught about the past. The fists that had laid themselves together beside the plate before her felt the touch of Jou's gentle hand gripping them. Rena's eyes lifted up to his face, seeing his smile encouraging her to remember about them, about the present, the future. "I'm here for you. If you ever need to get anything off your chest or you want to feel upset and cry, you know I'm here for you. I won't let you find that spiral inside of you again, you won't feel like the whole world is against you, that everything is out of your control. Life is full of things we can't control, but I don't want you to feel like you're going to subject to the Hinamizawa Syndrome because of that".

"Arigatou...Jou-kun" she breathed, her eyes narrowed softly, grateful for the hand he always reached out to her with.

His hands retreated to his own side of the table, Rena wiped her eyes of the imaginary tears, while her spirit had dropped, the absence of tears showed progress, it was a sign to her. Jou picked up the cake laying forgotten and raised it to his mouth, carefully catching any falling crumbs with his other hand laying beneath like a net, Rena watched with amusement as the precautionary measure proved useful, several crumbs fell upon his empty palm. He bit into the cake slowly and carefully, Rena chuckled at the measure, he seemed almost afraid it would fall apart right before him. Jou glared playfully at her with a grin whilst chewing on the mouthful, glad that she could change her mood back so easily. He swallowed quickly, wiping the few crumbs hanging on his lips without taking his eyes off of her.

"Your turn. I'd like to see you do better" he challenged.

Rena's gentle laughter came to an end. She reached for the treat in the same way Jou had, a hand hanging beneath it. She bit into it as she would have anything else, without hesitation. Jou stared at her hand, her quicker approach had left her hand clearer than his own. When she swallowed and marvelled the taste of the treat, she locked eyes with him.

"You shouldn't be too cautious, Jou-kun" she laughed. "Looks like you lost".

"This time" Jou interjected. "I won't lose to you again".

They continued in a similar manner, chatting about the city and what they planned to do before the sun would set, challenging each other, laughing over the misfortunes of each other and watching the others around that entered. They left the building an hour later, their own shadows of doubt and sorrow missing completely. Now Jou could see why Rena enjoyed Angel Mort, even without her friends by her side, he would have like to have met Shion, the girl she had mentioned had worked in the restaurant.

Rena directed Jou to places she had travelled to before, enjoying each spot with him for some time. They largely avoided the shops and the crowds of the city. At eight hours past noon; they stood on a bridge, staring down at a narrow river of water running beneath them. Flickers of the sun that had finally descended far enough for the sky's colour to change over the opposite horizon sparkled in the water. Rena looked up at the rainbow sky before them, pale reds fading into yellows, greens and then the vast blue; scenes had been common in Hinamizawa, but even with the memory of the desolate village fresh in her memory, the scene was enough to keep her smiling. Jou turned to her.

"You really like your nature, don't you?" he inquired.

"Ah. It was all around us in Hinamizawa" Rena answered. Much to Jou's surprise, she continued to smile without any trace of tears building in her eyes. "Keiichi-kun and I would walk along the dirt road to school, we didn't even lay concrete down because it would just cover up what the village had to offer. The cicadas were always chirping sadly in each new day, flowers could blossom wherever they pleased. There was this pond that I liked to visit a lot, the river running through that we would use for the Watanagashi Festival was the same; life was everywhere around it. It made me feel much happier than anywhere else would have because the places I cared for hadn't been touched and damaged, the forests around where we could play games, the garden of the Furude Shrine. It may have been a simple place compared to huge cities like here and it may not have been as active or had as much to do, but it was beautiful. It was somewhere I loved".

"I'm glad you take such pride in where you come from" Jou replied, smiling at Rena's recollection of such a tranquil village, she still seemed far form sadden about its fate. "We should head back soon, don't you think? The sun's started to get low, the sky will turn orange soon and then it'll be dark. I'm not so such that many of the places in the city stay open throughout the night".

"We should" Rena answered with a nod.

She took another glance at the river, the sakura trees standing over bank to the right continued to shed petals which floated innocently to the river, floating upon the water with minuscule ripples expanding from their touch. She wished there had been sakura trees in Hinamizawa, if she could; she'd plant seeds in memory of her friends and those lost in the Great Disaster. She turned her back on the glorious scene, smiling at Jou.

"One day..." she started with a deep intake, forcing down the want to shed tears. "I'm going to do something for the remains of Hinamizawa. When they allow access, I'll plant some sakura trees or make a mural for everyone that remained in the village on that night".

"I'm sure they'd love that, Rena" Jou replied discreetly, his tone fitting with the aura of the river and the bridge around them, laying his hand on her shoulder. He glanced down at her attire, she had worn the uniform she had used for school in Hinamizawa, he started to worry that the night air would be awkward for her. It was only Spring, but Winter hadn't long passed. The nights remained cold.

He held his hand out for her to take once again, she slipped her hand into the opening, gripping his hand firmly. Their eyes met, mirroring smiles at each other. They turned away from the river, the sakura trees, casually making their way back into the shopping district of the city and heading towards the apartment Ooishi lived in. The streets had emptied drastically compared to their first venture into the streets in the late morning, it made their slow stroll towards their home much easier. Rena watched the shops across the streets, some closing, some still serving the customers that wandered in. The clothes shop that Rena had wandered into the day after the last game with the group that made her friends had played came into sight, remembering the woman speaking about her father's order; that the shirts hadn't come. Rena's eyelid fell slightly at the thought of the day; the beginning of the end.

Jou continued to lead her in the direction of Ooishi's home, the trail slowly returning in Rena's mind. She had taken the route before, a reason she couldn't recall. She looked around to see what would remind her of what she had done, where she had gone. Moments after her search for answers had begun, a familiar sight met her eyes, she froze, staring at it. Jou reached the limits of their hold, turning to her when he couldn't move forward anymore. His eyes widened upon seeing Rena, her free hand hovering before her mind, staring in horror across the street.

"Rena?" he asked cautiously, rushing towards her when she didn't respond. "Rena, what's wrong?"

"That place..." Rena muttered, almost stammering. She pointed towards a cafe opposite them, Jou was at a loss until Rena continued. "That's where I met Shi-chan...the last time I saw her. And...and that's where I-I learned about Rina".

"Your dad's girlfriend?" Jou asked for clarification.

"Hai" Rena answered slowly, nodding. "Rina was working with Satoko's uncle. They were draining men of their money...and she had chosen my father as the next victim of their plot. It was there...there that the spiral Oyashiro-sama had set for me began. I swore revenge because of what she had done. And I left Shi-chan...on such a cold note. I yelled when Kasai, her bodyguard, tried to avoid answering. And I completely forgot".

Tears slid down her cheek, her hand trembling just in front of her face. Her entire body began to tremble, she tried to speak, but her words came as nothing more than single syllables followed by sharp intakes of air. Jou wrapped his arm around her, slowly forcing her away. She continued to sob in distress, her guilt over that day, for Shion, overwhelming her. He continued to encourage her to move forward, insisting they would have something to drink and talk about what she wanted when they returned to Ooishi's home. After all the times they could talk about the past and she would speak and act as though it hadn't affected her, Rena had broken down so easily.

* * *

Chapter written to: _"Higurashi Main Theme - Ai"_

_The sun that shines upon your body. The wind that blows though your soul. The warmth that burns within your heart. Remember who you are._

_"Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Reflection, Chapter 6 - Horizon"._


End file.
